Walk, Bike Friendly
Dear Editor: Did you know that Sitka is the only place in Alaska to be nationally recognized as both a walk and bike friendly community?
It’s true and every year thousands of people experience Sitka on foot or on a bicycle. With our short commutes, courteous drivers, low speed limits, natural beauty, and mild climate, biking and walking provide an economical and environmentally responsible way for people in Sitka to simultaneously meet their needs for transportation, physical activity, and fun, all in one. Over the years many improvements have been made here for both pedestrians and cyclists. Still, we have only scratched the surface. We can do so much more and together reap the rewards of creating a 21st century transportation system that is fair, healthy, and sustainable.
Being a place where locals and visitors can safely walk and bike gives our town a tremendous advantage and it’s rare. Much of our car-centric country is sprawling and the average worker in the U.S. has a 26-minute commute just to get to work. Getting around on foot or on a bike is hard when the distances are great and summer temperatures are high, which is more and more common these days. Can you imagine biking to work in Corvallis, Ore., a couple of weeks ago when it got up to109 degrees? However, in Sitka it is possible to get around without a car. Lots of people do it every day and they experience enormous physical and financial benefits.
The cost of living here is high compared to many places and this is a major issue. However, the cost of personal transportation in Sitka has the potential to be a fraction of what it is elsewhere. Having a community where you can comfortably live without the huge expense of buying, shipping, registering, insuring, maintaining, and constantly fueling a car puts us in an excellent position and helps with our town’s affordability problem.
Transforming our transportation system is inevitable because our current system is fueled by oil which is a finite resource that creates serious problems. For example, in 2013 researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported that air pollution causes about 200,000 early deaths in the U.S. each year. Emissions from road transportation are the most significant contributor, causing 53,000 premature deaths annually. Side note: if you are commuting on foot or on bike I recommend taking the scenic way and picking the routes and times that will limit your exposure to car exhaust.
The question isn’t should we change but when? Do we start taking action now or postpone and give this job to the next generation? When I look at the world our kids will be inheriting I strongly believe they will have a lot of problems to deal with already. So, instead of supporting the status quo and saying somebody else will do something, someday, why don’t we take on this great challenge now?
The good people of Ashton Hayes are providing us with a helpful example. In January of 2006, Ashton Hayes, a well-knit community of about 1,000 people, went to work on achieving the important goal of becoming England’s first carbon neutral community. In the last 11 years their voluntary program has significantly cut carbon dioxide emissions, while raising awareness and serving as an inspirational leader to people all over the world.
Like Ashton Hayes, I think Sitka is ideally situated to be a real leader in the field of sustainable personal transportation. Together we could create a healthy system that’s fueled by clean, local, renewable energy from our dams and some good old-fashion people power.
Doug Osborne, Sitka
