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There are 155 Travel and Transportation links for you to choose from!
Mayor Peter Clavelle Offers Testimony in Transportation Hearing
U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., today opened the first of 11 hearings that will examine the current and projected needs of the nation's transportation system. The "Partners for America's Transportation Future" hearings will lead to the reauthorization of the nation's surface transportation program -- the largest public works project in the U.S..
Jeffords chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which has primary responsibility for the reauthorization process.
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A private South Burlington road holiday shoppers use to escape
traffic tie-ups on Dorset Street is closed this year following a disagreement about paving.
Market Street runs about half a mile between Hinesburg Road to the east and Dorset Street to the west, across from University Mall. All but 600 feet near Dorset Street is unpaved.
The street had been open for a little more than a month during the holidays for the past four years as the result of an agreement between the city and the road's owner, South Burlington City Manager Chuck Hafter said.
This year, the owner, Randy Munson of South Burlington Realty Co., told the city that paving the road was a condition of opening the stretch, Hafter said.
Munson, who lives out of state, and other officials at South Burlington Realty could not be reached for comment.
City officials met with Munson and the realty company in September, Hafter said, and requested the road again be opened to ease the sometimes-snarled holiday traffic along Dorset Street and Williston Road.
As the Burlington Airport grows, so do area traffic problems.
More passengers mean more cars. So planners are looking at ways to ease congestion.
One suggestion tossed around over the years, is to build a new exit on Interstate-89 at Hinesburg Road. But studies by the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization suggest expanding exit-13 to a full interchange could relieve the problems.
"Better access controls on Kennedy Drive. Notice on Kennedy Drive there are few curb cuts. There's a light at Hinesburg Road and a light at Timber Lane, but there are very few driveways going into it, so it's pretty much a clear shot from Dorset Street intersection at Kennedy Drive to the airport," says Peter Keating of CCMPO.
The plan is still in the comment phase. And even if it wins approval, implementing it could take another fifteen-years.
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Linda Daily lives on a street that does not exist.
Sure, one can find Briggs Street on most Burlington city maps connecting Flynn Avenue and Morse Place in the South End. It might as well be erased from the cartographic record as far as the city is concerned.
Daily lives in one of the two houses on Briggs Street, a road that was to be part of the Southern Connector route years ago. As such, the city has all but given up maintaining the street that seems perennially on the cusp of bigger and better things. Steve Goodkind, director of public works, says the road as it is "doesn't really have a future."
After driving on the northern section of Briggs Street, the unpaved section that resembles a pock-marked road in Fallujah, a motorist's car might not have a future, either. The dirt swath between Flynn and Ferguson avenues has bodies of water that make the road practically impassable.
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Local Motion, Waterfront bike shop, encourages outdoor activities.
Walk, bike, skip, jump. Local Motion located at Burlington’s waterfront, just wants you to get active. The non-profit organization promotes forms of travel that are safe, fun and get community members outdoors, director Charlene Wallace says.
Trail finder
Some of the many Burlington residents who prefer to bike.
Photo courtesy of Larry Frisoli
The organization has just started a new initiative called “Trail Finder,” Wallace says.
“Our goal is to take inventory of every trail in Chittenden County, which is over 100 trails, and to document them all with GPS coordinates and pictures to create a comprehensive online resource of trails,” she says.
Wallace says that it’s a service that will be beneficial to the residents of Burlington who are looking for new trails to explore, and it will also be a resource for tourists who are new to the area.
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North Champlain is a two-lane, one-way street
that drivers use as a link from downtown to the Beltline. Those who live along the road between North Street and Manhattan Drive said Tuesday that many cars drive on their street so fast it's as though the vehicles already were on the highway.
The posted speed limit is 25 mph.
Worthen said she and her neighbors have been trying for five years to get city officials to install speed bumps and to enforce aggressively the speed limit.
Burlington's Public Works Department is devising a plan to slow traffic on the street, said Connie Livingston, bike/pedestrian environmental planner with the department. ...
The department is considering several options for slowing traffic, Livingston said: large "speed humps" like those on adjacent Park Street or smaller speed bumps or rumble strips.
Only two developers came to the Williston Planning Commission hearing
this week on a proposed increase in the town's transportation impact fee, but they claimed their strong opposition was on behalf of the hundreds of future homeowners to whom the increased costs would be passed.
Some municipalities levy a transportation impact fee on new developments to offset the cost of traffic improvements required to meet transportation needs generated by those developments. More houses and restaurants in town mean more cars in the streets and thus more traffic signals, pedestrian crossings and roads.
Developers are responsible for a portion of that cost according to how much new traffic their developments would generate, Williston town planner Lee Nellis said. Williston is proposing to increase the transportation impact fee from to ,824 per vehicle trip end.
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speed humps have arrived on Burlington's North Champlain Street.
The city's Public Works Department installed three of the seven humps planned for the busy one-way street. The department will finish the project in coming weeks, Director Steve Goodkind said.
Neighbors had resisted the bumps when the department suggested installing them to slow traffic about three years ago and again early this summer, Goodkind said. That changed in August when 11-year-old Nicole Worthen darted into traffic in August and was struck by a truck and seriously injured. Neighbors rallied to slow drivers speeding between downtown Burlington and Vermont 127, which connects the city to the New North End and Colchester.
The truck's driver was not charged in the August accident.
Nicole's aunt, Ruth Worthen, who lives at the corner of Cedar and North Champlain streets, said the new speed humps are having an effect on passing cars. Public Works installed three bumps between North Street and Manhattan Drive. The next four will be between Pearl and North streets.
Stoplight sentinel ensures holiday traffic keeps moving.
Audette, a 70-year-old state representative and former city employee, stands each weekend like a sentinel next to a traffic light on Dorset Street near University Mall. In his hand he holds a one-button, wired remote control that operates the signal.
His goal: to keep cars moving so that people and their presents arrive home before they've sat in traffic so long they've missed the holidays.
This time of year, that's no easy task. He stands watch -- at the southeast corner of the intersection near Barnes & Noble Booksellers -- from the day after Thanksgiving until the day after New Year's. He scans the traffic up and down the street like a spectator at a tennis match. Some days as many as 40,000 cars will speed, muscle, grind and honk their way through Audette's intersection, he said Saturday.
... Audette began working as stoplight sentry in 1997, when he was South Burlington's director of public works. He kept on controlling holiday traffic after he retired in 1999.
The Circumferential Highway is a planned 16-mile ring road
through suburban Chittenden County. The road would link Interstate 89 in Williston with Essex before moving on to I-89 in Colchester, and eventually to Vermont 127 in Colchester. A four-mile section in Essex opened to traffic in 1993.
Proponents say the highway is crucial if Chittenden County wants to help rid itself of worsening traffic congestion, particularly in Colchester, Essex and Williston.
Opponents say the Circ, which could ultimately cost more than million, is a colossal waste of money that would fuel development in mostly rural sections of the county.
The ever-higher price of fuel is prompting United and Continental Airlines
to add to ticket prices.
Travelers at the Burlington Airport said this increase is coming at a horrible time, as they begin planning their summer vacations.
Many said they are cutting back and staying home this summer, but others who have to fly for work said they don't have a choice.
... Drivers are still feeling pain at the pump. The high cost of gas has left many consumers feeling helpless.
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The Lakeside Bike Path / Pedestrian Crossing
The long embattled CIRC highway has hit another snag
that could delay it for at least another year...
The federal highway administration was expected to decide this month whether the CIRC needed a new "environmental review" - or if the state could go forward with construction. The Environmental Prpotection Agemcy, the E-P-A, asked for the environmental review, but the Vermont Agency of Transportation argued it was not necessary.
Instead of making a decision, the Federal Highway Administraion plans to meet with the E-P-A. That meeting is not scheduled yet - and at the earliest will be at the end of October.
Vermont Secretary of Transportation Brian Searles says the state will now have to wait before it can put the project out to bid. It could mean a delay of one construction season.
The lower block of the Church Street Marketplace
is getting a face lift.
For 22 years, the majority of Church Street has been off-limits to car traffic. The only exception has been the lower block between Main and College Streets.
That's about to change as the city of Burlington is tearing up the road, closing it to traffic, and rebuidling it with brick to mirror the upper blocks.
"And so we had an overwhelming majority of restauranteurs and businesses down here saying, 'wait a minute, we want the benefits that the upper blocks are getting, can you please bring those to us.' So it became kind of an overwhelming cry from our stakeholders and we said, 'okay, this is what they want, let's do it,'" says Ron Redmond, Executive Director of the Church Street Marketplace.
The cost of the project is about ,000 and will be paid for with federal highway funds.
Mark Bosma - Channel 3 News
The new explosive detection machines at Burlington
International Airport started running Saturday, said Nigel Spackman, the airport's stakeholder manager for the Transportation Security Administration. Federal law requires that all checked bags at all airports be screened for explosives beginning Dec. 31. For now, bags at the Burlington airport are being examined only if they come from passengers who are selected for screening based on a number of criteria, such as how they bought their ticket. There are also some random checks.
Passengers are being encouraged to pack their bags with a little extra care in case their bags set off the machine and need to be opened and searched. Leaving gifts unwrapped is one suggestion. Other recommendations include packing shoes on top so screeners can get to them easily to test them and leaving bags unlocked so the locks don't have to be forced open.
The Southern Connector could finally serve a purpose.
14 years after workers laid the asphalt for what was supposed to be a direct route to downtown Burlington.
The decrepit, weed-infested blacktop that once housed a skateboard park will be a temporary parking lot for the Baird Center for Children and Families. The city of Burlington last month approved a permit for the use.
The unfinished four-lane highway should be whisking cars from Interstate 189 into the heart of Vermont's largest city. Instead, nearly 40 years after the highway was first pitched, only the first of three segments of the road exists.
The project has stagnated for decades, stalled by concerns about pollution, financing and design. The existing stretch of road -- never used by motor vehicles -- is so deteriorated, rebuilding it must be factored into the timeline for completing the project, said Steve Goodkind, director of the city's Public Works Department.
The Southern Connector project has been in the air since 1965
when state officials decided there needed to be a way to efficiently carry traffic around the city. The connector was meant to ease congestion on the main north-south arteries into Burlington and alleviate traffic in residential neighborhoods.
Over the years, more than million has gone into the project, which has been hung up by environmental concerns, political in-fighting, debates over routes and a number of "not in my backyard" neighbor objections.
The project continues to be on the drawing board, and until the idea is scrapped, the three-block-long Briggs Street will continue to hold the unofficial title as the worst street in Burlington. Daily has come to accept that her street is all but abandoned. She stays away from the minefield end of the street and adjusts her driving accordingly.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it won't approve construction
permits for the so-called Circumferential Highway project in Williston if it's built as originally planned.
But state Transportation Secretary Neale Lunderville said he believes there's room for modifications that would satisfy the federal regulators.
According to draft documents released in August, the alternatives for the design include building the highway between Interstate 89 in Williston and Vermont 117 in Essex, making changes to Vermont 2A to improve traffic flow or building some combination of those two options.
EPA Regional Administrator Robert Varney said that only the Vermont 2A alternatives would win approval.
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Tourist attractions in the state are optimistic that Vermont's
and location will continue to draw visitors this fall, bucking the soft economy and depressed travel industry.
There is plenty at stake. Fall foliage is a .06 billion industry and is the busiest of tourist seasons.
Last year's numbers give reason for hope. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a stagnant economy failed to deter leaf peepers. Fall tourism was up 20 percent.
The consensus is the state benefited as travelers from the Mid-Atlantic states and Boston avoided air travel and opted to hop in their cars and drive to Vermont. The trend seems to be continuing.
... According to the Vermont Tourism Data Center at the University of Vermont, tourists made 1.5 million trips to Vermont during September, October and November in 2001, a 20 percent increase over 1999....
Fall accounts for 31 percent of visits to the state, according to the Vermont Tourism Data Center.
U.S. Route 7, also known as Shelburne Road,
serves as the southern gateway to Chittenden County. The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) is at work to improve a portion of U.S. Route 7 which will be extended 3˝ miles from Imperial Drive in South Burlington to the recently completed LaPlatte River Crossing in Shelburne. The result will be a landscaped four-lane boulevard, with a planted median island, bike lanes, sidewalks, bus stops and shelters, street lighting and a coordinated signal system. These features have the ability to reduce congestion and improve mobility while providing for the needs of bicyclists and pedestrians. Median u-turn breaks will be provided at five locations.
This million project will be constructed in three segments. The first segment, the LaPlatte River Crossing at the southern end is completed. The northern or South Burlington segment will begin at Imperial Drive (just north of IDX Drive) in South Burlington
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Vermont is a relatively safe place to drive,
but when fatal crashes do happen, there's a good chance a vehicle ran off the road, according to a national traffic safety group.
Vermont's roads are more prone than average to run-off-the-road fatalities, as the American Traffic Safety Services Association calls them, because the roads are generally rural, said James Baron, a spokesman for the industry group.
"A lot of these rural roads lack a lot of common safety features such as guardrails, rumble strips, and bright signs that enable the driver to see they're approaching a curve," Baron said.
Capt. John Melvin, a deputy with the Windham County Sheriff's Department, had another explanation.
"What happens is typically on dirt roads, everyone drives in the middle, and when they meet a car, they all pull to the right, and sometimes that sudden movement to the right and a combination with the loose gravel being kicked up can send cars into a skid," he said.
Vermont Rail System
is an affiliation of four Vermont-based shortlines; the Vermont Railway, the Green Mountain Railroad, the Clarendon and Pittsford Railroad, and the Washington County Railroad, which have provided efficient, reliable rail freight service to a wide variety of customers for many years. In 1997, the first three roads were joined in common ownership and formed a strategic alliance which provides for better utilization of manpower and equipment, resulting in an increased level of service to customers. The Washington county was added in 1999.
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Vermont resorts and attractions are teeming with tourists
this summer. ... Americans are taking shorter trips and seeking out rural areas this summer, said Cathy Keefe, spokeswoman for the Travel Industry Association of America in Washington, D.C.
... At Shelburne Museum, business is up 15 percent over last year. Ice cream factory tours at the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury are up 13 percent.
... Dakin Farm in Ferrisburgh and South Burlington also reported increased sales. ...
These numbers are well above the 2 percent increases predicted by the travel industry association.
Rural areas have done better this summer than cities. Travel to major cities is down 4 percent, Keefe said.
Summer is the biggest season for tourism in the state. Summer tourism has a total economic impact of .4 billion in Vermont, according to a study done by the University of Vermont and the state Department of Tourism and Marketing in 2000. Fall foliage season is a close second at .1 billion in economic impact for the state.
Vermont Road Traveler Information for Burlington Area
-- The Vermont Agency of Transportation introduces an updated 1-800-ICY-ROAD service to help commuters and travelers access information regarding weather-related road conditions, construction and congestion, via the web or phone – 24/7.
Vermont Department of Safety and VTrans has been trusted and reliable sources of travel information for many years through the 1-800-ICY-ROAD and VermontRoads.com website.
The new service will provide enhanced service that is available directly to travelers via the web or phone – 24/7 - and include voice recognition, increased calling capacity and easier-to-navigate web pages.
By knowing state highway road conditions, travelers will be able to better plan for their trips and commutes and in the future, abbreviated dialing of 511 will make the information even easier to reach.
Click here to read more.
Waterfront path crossing lights
Welcome to Park Street-- home to some of Burlington's largest potholes.
A street literally lined with hubcaps.
Public works crews say this is one of the worst years for potholes that they've ever seen.
That's keeping tire shops busy...
The potholes have been especially treacherous in Burlington because there's so much water on the ground making them impossible to see, but the evidence of their destruction is everywhere.
Johanna King hit what she calls "a crater" while driving down North Avenue Thursday night.
"It was about 4 feet by 3 feet so I went today and took pictures of it," she says.
Four other cars hit the same pothole just minutes later-- resulting in four more flat tires.
Crews say all they can do is temporarily patch the holes until the weather warms up and the puddles dry up.
In the meantime, mechanics like Jim Messier expect the tires to keep on flattening so long as the potholes remain.
Click here to read more.
Williston may raise their transportation impact fee.
Planning to develop land in Williston? You might consider attending the Williston Planning Commission public hearing Tuesday. Proposed changes to the development bylaws will increase significantly the transportation impact fees charged on new developments.
Williston is proposing to increase the transportation impact fee from to ,824 per PM-peak-hour-vehicle-trip-end, town planner Lee Nellis said.
Q: What is it?
A: Some municipalities levy a transportation impact fee to new developments to offset the cost of traffic improvements that would be needed to meet transportation needs generated by those developments. In other words, more houses and restaurants in town mean more cars in the streets and thus more traffic signals, new pedestrian crossings and new roads to build and maintain. Developers are responsible for a portion of that cost according to how much new traffic their developments would generate.
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This pedestrian crossing in Vermont goes over three tracks. Access is limited by safety fencing.
All the warning lights were installed so the Champlain Flyer commuter passenger train didn't have to blow its horn several times a day.
This photo shows active warning devices at
Burlington Vermont Waterfront park pedestrian path track crossing. Howard Dean got his start in politics by leading the citizen group that established this path.
All the warning lights were installed so the Champlain Flyer commuter passenger train didn't have to blow its horn several times a day.