Considering how enthusiastically most Juneauites embraced “Change” in November, it will be interesting to see how they react to the state’s preliminary plan for the future of transportation in Southeast. It’s all about Change.

The Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan (SATP) scoping document is an honest, comprehensive analysis that lays out reality for anyone unafraid to confront it. Many in Southeast will likely resist, but as our region’s population continues to shrink we will have little choice but to accept the obvious - that the ferry system as we have known it since its inception is no longer sustainable.

The plan’s Mission Statement and Goals include a key objective that has implications for the state budget and by extension for all Alaskans - not just those served by the marine highway system. That goal is to “Improve System Efficiency”.

“Develop a transportation system that is sustainable for the future; make choices that are cost effective to the user and the state; and, where reasonable, coordinate the development of transportation and utilities to reduce environmental impact and gain efficiencies.”

The guts of the SATP’s scoping document are found in the “initial planning assumptions” and “reasonable range of alternatives under development.” Key assumptions include flat to declining population growth in Southeast and increased fuel costs.

The DOT also anticipates that a statewide greenhouse gas emission reduction plan will be written and gas emission standards developed for both highways and ferries. These standards could impose restrictions on ferry service and result in increased costs.

The SATP alternatives are “directed at retiring old Ferries, and improving mobility, community connectivity and efficiency.”

The options presented to improve transportation in the region include an improved ferry system, maintaining the existing 2008 system, reducing excess capacity, eliminating duplicative systems and developing Southeast’s highway system.

Each alternative is evaluated on ten factors including efficiency, connectivity, capacity, capital expense and annual expense. Where reasonable transportation alternatives exist, (roads, Alaska Airlines, the British Columbia ferry system) they are identified.

Sustainability is a value that under normal circumstances would be cited ad nauseum in any long-range planning discussion. But when it comes to our beloved “big blue canoes,” it’s always a different story.

For a variety of reasons - primarily philosophical objections to road-building and development - it’s a sentimental, romanticized portrayal of ferries that’s driven transportation policy in SE for years.

Because these mainline vessels must be replaced, the opportunity exists to revise the transportation model to better control costs and create a sustainable transportation system. That would mean changing the mindset to embrace road extensions and shorter ferry runs.

The SATP scoping process allows Alaskans to weigh in and inject a dose of reality into the outcome. Comments on the preliminary plan are due by July 31.

The full document is available at:
http://www.dot.state.ak.us/stwdplng/projectinfo/ser/newwave/SATP_FINAL/index.shtml