I live in a small township called Sugarloaf. It is a suburb of Hazleton, PA, which is in the northeastern region of the state. Sugarloaf is an automobile suburb, because the town is spaced out over a decently large area, and you have to drive to Hazleton to get there. Within the town, there are multiple neighborhoods and farms. Roughly 4,200 people reside in the 22.5 square mile township. Sugarloaf is one of several small municipalities outside of Hazleton. Sugarloaf is unique because it encircles a borough called Conyngham. Conyngham has less than half the population of Sugarloaf, but it provides most utility services to my township. I love living in Sugarloaf. My family has lived in a neighborhood there for 15 years. It is a great place to raise children, and many of the activities common in Sugarloaf utilize the plentiful wooded areas. One way Sugarloaf could become more sustainable is by transforming the transportation systems, especially by means of bicycling and public transportation.
Another city I would like to focus on is Rochester. As with Sugarloaf, Rochester has neighborhoods that are automobile suburbs. The city has roughly 210,600 people living in 37.1 square miles, but the whole metro area consists of over 1 million people. Even being an automobile suburb, Rochester is taking steps to cut down on vehicular transportation. According to the city’s website, over 45 miles of bicycle lanes have been installed on the streets since 2011, with this project ever-growing. Bicycle parking is becoming more abundant, and the off-street trails network has been expanded. Sugarloaf can learn from Rochester’s example. I believe expanding my township’s on-road bicycle lanes and parking is key in encouraging more people to bike to Hazleton. Even though Rochester has many more people than Sugarloaf does, every town’s efforts make a difference.
Curitiba, Brazil is also a good role model for Sugarloaf. With about 1.8 million people living in 166.4 square miles, and over 3 million people in the entire metro area, a good transportation system is necessary. Choosing buses as the primary transportation method, the city has seen remarkable results, and is contributing significantly to sustainability. The only time when public transportation is used in Sugarloaf is when children take the school bus. These buses are not utilized during the other hours of the day, however. If buses were used more often for transportation to Hazleton, parking would be more available and less gas would be emitted. While there is public transportation within the city of Hazleton, so many people travel to the city, and therefore a bus system should be better utilized.
Hi my name is Ashlee. I am also from Pennsylvania and your post caught my eye because I have never heard of Sugarloaf! I am from Waynesboro, PA which is very close to Gettysburg. Our towns sound very similar being automobile suburbs. I think that Rochester is a very cool place and that our towns should consider constructing more bicycle and pedestrian walking paths like Rochester has. If you would like to take a look at my blog here it is: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/module-7-10/
Thanks!
Hi, my name is Molly and I was drawn to your post when I was reading your last paragraph about how buses in Curitiba, Brazil benefit so many people and you think buses would benefit your town. My town is also an automobile suburb and we do have buses that take us to other cities but it is not the best system. It doesn’t really take people throughout my town which I think would benefit a lot of people if it did. Mass transportation is environmentally friendly because it moves a lot of people without putting out an absurd amount of pollution. I think that both of our towns would greatly benefit from a better bus system. Overall, I really like your post and thought you did a good job. Here is the link to my post if you are interested. http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/18/sustainability-in-my-town/
Hello!
Your post caught my eye – I see that we both decided to mention Curitiba, Brazil. If you wanted to take a look at what I had to say about it feel free: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-cwu
From the way you make it sound, Sugarloaf does indeed sound like a pleasant place to live! I definitely agree with you on utilizing the buses more in order to cut back on the number of cars – this should be beneficial in several ways (provided that the number of people on the buses outweigh the individual cars). Do you think that maybe even the school buses (during their “off” hours) could be used to help transport people to Hazleton? – It might look ridiculous, but it could make a big change. If that seems too “out there”, how about a carpooling program? – It may not be As influential, but it would sure help chip away at the problem.
Hi,
My name is Humna and here is a link to my reply: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-cvG.
I noticed that you also mentioned increasing the means of biking as good source of increasing sustainability. I think that’s a great idea for the environment, peoples’ health, and even cost. The bus idea seemed unrealistic because of cost, but then I realized the bike one seems difficult too because of laziness; what do you think?