Transportation 9.0: Introduction

Transportation on Martha’s Vineyard faces special challenges. As an island, it is only accessible by boat or air. As a summer resort, there is about a four-fold fluctuation in the number of people on the Island, leading to congestion and safety problems, and straining infrastructure capacities. As a predominantly rural or semi-rural area, it is especially challenging to offer alternative means of transportation to the car, especially outside of town centers. There is ongoing concern about the impact of transportation on the unique environmental, scenic, and historic qualities of the Vineyard.

The Island’s network of narrow, generally two-lane roads is the backbone of the Island’s transportation network. It carries the 25,000 cars registered on the Island, and almost 10,000 additional vehicles during the peak summer period. The Steamship Authority carries over 2 million passengers and almost 500,000 vehicles each year. There are also close to 300,000 passenger trips on private ferries and another 250,000 by air. However, even at the peak of summer, traffic is largely year-round residents, at least in the Down-Island towns.  

The Island’s explosion in popularity over the past generation has resulted in rapid growth – both population and traffic and transportation – that threatens the very qualities that many find so attractive.  Although roadway, ferry, and air traffic has leveled in recent years, off-season and Up-Island automobile traffic is still rising. Given the Island’s largely scattered population, the motor vehicle will probably continue to be the dominant form of transportation. As the population continues to grow, the challenge will be how to avoid increasing congestion while also avoiding inappropriate physical engineering solutions that undermine the Vineyard’s scenic beauty, so important to the Island’s character and economy. The main way to do this is by strengthening alternative modes of getting around.

There have been many recent transportation successes in this direction. 

·  The Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority (VTA) has grown from a limited, seasonal shuttle service transporting 71,000 people in 1997 to an Island-wide, year-round, bus service that carried 769,000 people in 2005, and over 1,000,000 in 2008. Imagine if all those trips had been made by cars further clogging up the roads.

·  Use of Tisbury’s park-and-ride tripled between 2004 and 2008 and Edgartown just revamped its park-and-ride lot, both allowing people to leave their cars on the edge of town.

·  Since 1997, the Steamship Authority limited summer car capacity, thereby discouraging short-term visitors from bringing cars across.

·  In the last few years, the West Tisbury created a mile of pedestrian paths beside the road and Edgartown added two more miles of bike path to the Island’s 37-mile network. 

This section includes a summary of some key elements of the 2007 edition of the Martha's Vineyard Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), and readers are encouraged to refer to that complete document. The RTP also looks at issues not dealt with here, such as water transportation, intermodality, air travel, and freight. The next revision of the RTP will incorporate the new proposals outlined in this section of the Island Plan.

The RTP’s overall goal is to establish and maintain a transportation system that is safe, reliable, convenient, accessible, economical, affordable, and is consistent with the Vineyard’s scenic, historic and natural resources.

Many proposals in other sections of the Island Plan have a strong relation to transportation. The recommendations in section 2 (Development & Growth) favoring consolidation of mixed-use, pedestrian friendly, village areas within the limits of already developed areas, would mean that people will be able to meet many of their daily needs by walking or biking, rather than taking a car. For development outside village areas, encouraging development within walking distance of bus stops and increasing telecommuting, home offices, and the availability of convenience stores across the Island would reduce the need for many car trips into town. Section 5 (Energy & Waste) deals with proposals to increase the use of energy-efficient vehicles. 

Objective T1:  Promote and fund alternative modes of transportation.

The following two strategies affect the objectives in each of the other sections, which deal with specific modes of transportation.

·  Strategy T1-1: Increase the promotion of alternative forms of transportation.  A campaign could demystify and emphasize the environmental benefits of taking the bus or bike (such as the pilot project this summer of videos on ferries, explaining transit use and bike safety). This could include programs to encourage students not to drive to school.

·  Strategy T1-2: Set out the use of mitigation fees to fund alternate transportation: In many localities, new development projects that have significant impacts on traffic, mitigate these impacts by contributing to a road improvement fund to pay for things like widening roads or installing turning lanes and traffic lights. The MVC does this for Developments of Regional Impact, directing the funds to alternate means of transportation, especially those that are difficult to finance in other ways such as special transit services or bicycle path design and maintenance (funds are more easily available for construction). This practice should be set on a clearer footing, and towns could consider whether it is desirable or feasible to do this at a town level.