Smart Growth Publishes Brochure

The Smart Growth Partnership of Westmorland County is calling on municipalities along US Route 30 to adopt new transportation plans that fit into the partnership’s master plan for the highway. Smart Growth Executive Director Alex Graziani says they have just published the “Smart Transportation Brochure” that he hopes everyone will download from its website and then pressure local lawmakers to make the needed changes. He says RT. 30 is the life-blood of the region but at times it is too congested and at times it has been mismanaged in the past. Graziani says it is possible to have too much of a good thing. When a municipality is successful in attracting business to a section of the highway it can become too congested and that actually drives away business. Through Westmorland County, Rt. 30 oscillates between just two lanes to as many as six lanes. Graziani says the work was often done without any master planning on an evolving basis and it is now too late in some instances to look at options such as limiting the number of driveways that enter the road or creating interchanges rather than intersections with traffic lights that can clog the artery. Graziani says the information in the brochure and the master plan can be used in any community that has a similar highway passing though its borders.