Transportation Policies

Land Use and Transportation

1. Maintain a Support transportation planning consistent with compact settlement goals, including promoting the incorporation of complete streets principles into planning for compact settlement.
2. Recognize the link between housing and transportation costs and support planning efforts to reduce transportation costs for Windham Region residents, including improved multimodal transportation linkages between residential, commercial and industrial areas.
3. Preserve village character through appropriate design and scale of commercial, industrial, residential, transportation infrastructure and community structures and uses.
4. Preserve and create Right-of-Ways for future transportation linkages between communities, neighborhood services, and other destinations.
5. Avoid extension of roads into and through Resource Lands and discourage habitat fragmentation from town highways.
6. Support improvements to multi modal transportation infrastructure to promote infill of existing strip areas.
7. Support bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure improvements in our urban centers, designated downtowns, village centers and resort centers.

Energy and Transportation

1. Support planning to reduce car dependence and reduce emissions in the Windham Region.
2. Support implementation of the California Low and No Emission Vehicle Standards consistent with the 2022 Statewide Comprehensive Energy Plan.
3. Support planning and implementation of infrastructure necessary to facilitate the transition to low and now emission vehicles.
4. Support creation of infrastructure for hydrogen cell vehicle fueling.
5. Support expansion of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the region, in particular in downtowns and village centers, as well as along major corridors and in resort centers.
6. Promote the use and adoption of alternative forms of transportation that reduce emissions, including improvements to the public transportations system, promoting walking and biking including electric bicycles and encouraging carpooling through the expansion and promotion of park and ride lots in the region and the use of the Way To Go! Vermont App.

Transportation Resiliency

1. Promote the adoption of best practices to ensure that our transportation infrastructure is resilient and able to mitigate the impacts of increasingly severe storms to ensure the safe and efficient function of the network
2. Encourage the proper sizing of culverts across the region in accordance with VTrans Hydraulics Manual standards for bankfull width and stream equilibrium and support efforts to upsize existing culverts where necessary or possible.
3. Support best practices in roadway and ditch construction to mitigate the increasingly severe effects of the spring mud season on our roadways.
4. Assist towns with identifying potential funding sources for local projects to improve the resiliency of our transportation network and help in developing competitive grant applications to those programs and with the management of such projects once funded.
5. Support continued efforts to implement the Municipal Roads General Permit (MRGP) across the region and to bring all ‘Very High Priority’ segments into compliance by 2028.
6. Minimize conflicts between our transportation system and wildlife and encourage the consideration of aquatic organism passage, including the incorporation of natural bottom culverts, as part of road and culvert projects wherever feasible.
7. Encourage towns to adopt clear driveway culvert policies and provide assistance in developing best practices for the management of driveway culverts as part of the larger transportation infrastructure network.
8. Encourage towns to utilize the VTrans Transportation Resiliency Planning Tool (TRPT) in planning for transportation resiliency and continue to train regional stakeholders on the use of the tool.
9. Continue to explore solutions to rising aggregate costs, including advocating for a review of sand and gravel pit permitting at the state level, working with towns and suppliers on evaluating and addressing current market conditions within the scope of our mandate as well as continuing to explore possibilities for the WRC to facilitate bulk purchasing options for the region.

Highways and Bridges

1. Support the implementation of best practices in town highway construction to improve resiliency and efficiency of the Windham Region’s transportation infrastructure.
2. Support projects that ensure the adequate and efficient function of our region’s highway and bridge infrastructure.
3. Support planning efforts to assist towns in carefully considering the paving of unpaved roads, including providing a cost benefit analysis of long-term construction and maintenance costs of paved vs unpaved roads in accordance with VTrans guidance. 
4. Provide support to municipalities when considering the reclassification of state highways to Class 1 town highways.
5. Support efforts to identify and prioritize regional highway and bridge needs through the Vermont Project Selection and Prioritization Process.
6. Support the implementation of infrastructure aimed at calming traffic on our region’s roads based on best practices, including the implementation of radar feedback signs, improved line striping, bump outs and other infrastructure where practical or possible.
7. Encourage towns to implement long term capital planning practices in the maintenance of their town highway and bridge infrastructure.
8. Support best practices in the management of Class 4 town highways and encourage towns to adopt bylaws related to the maintenance and improvement of Class 4 roads, in particular in relation to increasing development pressure on our Class 4 town highways.
9. Encourage towns to expand and encourage the incorporation of Class 4 town highways and legal trails as part of our region’s outdoor recreation network.
10.  Advocate for the funding necessary to repair and improve our region’s town highway bridge network, including promoting an equitable distribution of bridge funding to all communities.
11. Work with towns to identify and prioritize funding sources for the improvement of our region’s road and bridge network.
12. Encourage best practices in setting speed limits on town highways and provide technical assistance.

Bicycle and Pedestrian

1. Supports traffic calming efforts on our rural roadways to encourage bicycle and pedestrian accessibility throughout the region, including but not limited to the installation of radar feedback signs where possible. 
2. Supports the improvement bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in the region, including installing and extending new sidewalks where feasible, incorporating bike lanes into our existing roadways, the construction of off-road mixed-use paths where on road infrastructure is not possible, as well as the incorporation of rectangular rapid flashing beacons and raised crossings into crosswalks.
3. Support the creation and expansion of bicycle infrastructure on the region’s primary transportation corridors, in particular along the proposed Route 5 Bicycle Corridor, as well as along Route 30 and Route 100.
4. Encourage the consideration and incorporation of Complete Streets principles into all roadway and bridge construction projects wherever possible.
5. Recognize bicycle and pedestrian connectivity as an important part of overall downtown and village vibrancy in the Windham Region and encourage the adoption of best practices for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in our downtown’s and village centers.
6. Support clear and enforceable municipal policies on winter sidewalk maintenance responsibilities in the region.
7. Support efforts to update and improve statewide policies on traffic calming and bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure on state highways in our downtowns and villages and help towns when seeking improvements on state highways in their downtowns and village centers.
8. Work with towns to identify local priorities, gaps within the existing network and planning for the construction of new, as well as the expansion and improvement of existing, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
9. Provide assistance to towns with applications for funding to the VTrans Transportation Alternatives and Bicycle and Pedestrian programs in support of new bicycle and pedestrian planning and implementation projects.
10. Encourage the consideration of equity for all users, in particular vulnerable populations such older adults, disabled persons, low income residents and people of color, when planning for and implementing bicycle and pedestrian projects.

Transit

1. Support the expansion and creation of micro transit services in the region wherever feasible, including the ongoing Brattleboro ‘Micro-Moo’ pilot.
2. Support maintaining existing Southeast Vermont Transit service and the expansion of SEVT services wherever possible.
3. Support efforts to extent bus service along the Route 30 corridor between Brattleboro and Manchester.
4. Support the expansion of transit both within the region and to neighboring regions, including the extension of bus service from Brattleboro to Keene, NH and Greenfield, Mass.
5. Support the exploration, implementation and expansion of alternative on-demand transit services to towns in the region currently unserved by Southeast Vermont Transit.
6. Consider the needs of transit dependent populations when planning for public transit service in the region.
7. Support the maintenance and improvement of existing passenger rail infrastructure in the region, including efforts to rehabilitate the historic Bellows Falls train station.
8. Support the expansion of passenger rail service in the region, including efforts to extend the Valley Flyer service from Greenfield, Mass to Brattleboro and Bellows Falls and the addition of more daily trips on the existing Vermonter service.
9. When possible, support ongoing efforts to implement East-West rail in Western Massachusetts, including the Northern Tier service between Greenfield and Boston, to provide the Windham Region passenger rail access to Boston.

Freight

1. Promote rail freight as a preferred alternative to truck freight when possible.
2.  Maintain, improve, and expand passenger and freight rail services.
3.  Encourage businesses and industries with high freight demands to locate within the rail corridor, improving mobility of goods by rail.
4. Work with towns to evaluate the impact of increased E-commerce traffic on town highways and encourage best practices to limit negative impacts whenever possible.