Courtesy Capital Region Chamber
BY PETE BARDUNIAS
In the 12 years I’ve been involved in community leadership here in Saratoga County, one oft-overlooked consideration is the issue of mobility. The future generation may be at risk of being, in a practical sense, less mobile than their predecessors, and that will have significant impact on economics.
Have you ever driven along a major thoroughfare and come across someone on a bicycle, riding with you in the traffic? Watching that person pedal along, mere inches in some cases from the cars passing at 40-50 miles per hour, can be pretty scary.
Darlene McGraw from Halfmoon, a local advocate for mobility issues for those unable to use conventional transportation, was struck on her special tricycle last year as she traveled on Route 146 in Clifton Park. In an age where we hear so much about using alternative means of transportation to get to work or play, it still seems rather dangerous to actually do it. Bicycle trails, especially in Clifton Park, are excellent, but sometimes one must go onto the main roadway. The roads themselves are busy places these days, not particularly safe for bicycles or even for cars. Impatient drivers often pass on the double yellow lines, a practice that gets even more dangerous on rural roads when a farm tractor is being passed. Many serious accidents have happened due to this behavior and other bad habits.
In talking to people about the problems, the consensus seems to be that roads need upgrades, better alternative means of transportation need to be developed, or both. During the past couple of years, some had hoped that the rise of remote work would alleviate such issues, but the reality seems to be that the flexible schedules involved today only shuffle things around a bit, moving traffic to different roadways or other times of the day, while also increasing the demand for services which aren’t quite there yet.
For example, as legislative decrees produce the demand for more electric cars, is the infrastructure available to charge them?
There have been successes in alternative means of transportation. CDTA’s Flex system apparently is a hit in the small swath of Saratoga County where it has been implemented. This is good news for workers needing to get to Clifton Park from Halfmoon or Mechanicville, for instance.
The question is, can the footprint of this great initiative be expanded successfully and sustainably? There are very few alternatives to the automobile in Saratoga County. It isn’t very likely that we will ever see some sort of commuter rail service in the Capital Region.
Amtrak is bringing back the Adirondack this year, that will be a huge help, along with their other trains to New York City, Boston and even Chicago. It would have been nice had the railway to North Creek still been available for travelers from New York City via Saratoga, but some of the communities along that rail line seem to have soured to the idea of restoring train service that far north, so the Saratoga, Corinth and Hudson Railway is limited to stops in our county, at least for now.
Fuel prices have been very high, though in recent weeks they have dropped considerably, in some cases close to pre-Pandemic levels. That is a good thing for drivers. But there is talk of rerouting or even eliminating segments of interstate highways in several cities in New York state, which if enacted will impact the ability of future drivers to reach their destinations efficiently unless smart planning takes place. Supply chains impact everyone too – more products are shipped to residences than ever before, and that takes up space on roadways, at traffic lights, in parking lots, etc. A wild card is, of course, the international political situation.
Some of the supply chain challenges mean that cars meant for customer purchases are tied up in manufacturing backlogs or needed repair parts are delayed in reaching the shop. On the water, some of the new procedures on the Champlain Canal such as double-flushing of Locks impact the convenient movement of boats, though the jury is still out on its significance. One opportunity arising through the changing dynamics of transportation may be that marine cargo transportation using solar-electric vessels may become a viable alternative for some. The technology is proven and is already available.
Looking forward, electrons can do much of the “moving” for us, with more and better ways to work remotely or access needed data, perform vital tasks, etc. from anywhere there is decent cell service. This may be the silver lining, because for many, the post-Pandemic definition of “mobility” may be to use mobile devices to accomplish what used to be done exclusively at the office.
The rest of us will be on the roads headed to work, but perhaps they will become slightly less crowded ones.