Transportation and use of power from power plants are the 2 biggest ways we all contribute to climate change. Transportation is estimated to be 27% of our nation’s energy consumption.

Island Energy Plan GOALS
1. Reduce energy used per capita for transportation needs
2. Use locally generated energy to offset greenhouse gas emissions for all island vehicles and SSA ferries.

CURRENT STATUS
The motorized means of transportation Vineyarders and visitors use – ferries and personal watercraft, motor vehicles, aircraft, and mopeds – account for about one-third (36%) of the Island’s total energy consumption. Total motor vehicle miles traveled has been increasing by approximately 2% per year, twice the population growth rate. The major growth in all types of SSA traffic is in the shoulder and off-seasons. The large home services and construction sectors require a lot of travel throughout the island.

The Island communities have taken steps to reduce traffic congestion by looking at particularly congested locations – plans for a roundabout at the former blinker intersection in Oak Bluffs and a connector road between Edgartown – Vineyard Haven Road and Upper State Road in Tisbury -- and by providing attractive alternatives to using the automobile, such as year-round bus transit service integrated with park-and-ride lots, expanded sidewalk and bike path  networks. Nevertheless, the dispersed physical development of the Vineyard makes it likely that personal motor vehicles will remain our predominant means of transportation even fifty years from now.

If we are to make a significant reduction in the amount of the energy that transportation consumes and the destructive waste it emits, we will need a multi-pronged approach to shift personal vehicle miles to transit or non-motorized personal travel (walk and bike), to improve fuel consumption rates of vehicles, and transition to cleaner burning or “green” fuels that might be generated on-Island.  

Potential Measures (Targets)           2010            2030            2050
Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) (avg. daily)    
Transit Ridership as Percent of VMT
Percent of Vehicles hybrid                       1% (250)        38%            75%
Transit miles non-fossil fueled                5%                   35%            71%
SSA ferry non-fossil fueled                      0%                   25%            50%

OBJECTIVE 1:  Reverse growth in the total motor vehicle miles traveled
Finding ways to reduce vehicle miles traveled serves the island in a number of ways.  All of the Vineyard's fuel is imported by ferry or barge and reducing the amount needed will serve us if scarcities of gasoline should occur.  The Vineyard's summer traffic and congestion issues result in lines of idling cars waiting to get into or through town centers, which contributes to local air pollution.   Transportation is the most significant way that people on the Vineyard contribute to Climate Change.  

STRATEGIES    
1.1  Make public transit more compelling to use
1.2  Provide incentives to people to drive less
1.3  Lessen barriers to bicycle travel
1.4  Provide facilities for people to walk safely and comfortably
1.5  Reduce automobile traffic associated with pickup/drop-off of ferry passengers
1.6    Remove town-centric structure of taxis to promote more efficiency and flexibility in service
1.7   Use land planning tools to encourage use of more efficient methods of transportation.

OBJECTIVE 2   Use available technologies to reduce the amount of gasoline used per vehicle mile traveled. Hybrid vehicles, and soon to be available plug-in hybrids, and all-electric vehicles, offer a near-term solution to reducing the island's automobile fuel needs.  With fuel efficiencies of double or more than today’s average vehicle, they offer a way for islanders to continue to use their vehicles as they wish, while saving on the amount of gasoline that we need to import to the island.  In addition, hybrids and other efficient vehicles offer the easiest transportation solution to reducing our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and Climate Change. The Vineyard holds particular promise for alternative-powered automobiles with regard to charge-duration, vehicle acceleration and reduced collision severity as our distances are relatively short and there are no speed limits over 45 mph.

In the long-term, replacing the use of combustion engines with other available technologies such as electric motors, hydrogen-powered fuel cells or vehicles designed to store power for the island, in combination with locally generated energy from renewable sources, will allow us to work towards the goal of zero emissions for the island's transportation sector.  

STRATEGIES
2.1 Promote the use of hybrids and other super-efficient vehicles as the most practical choice on Martha’s Vineyard, by using them in highly visible ways.
2.2    Encourage the use of hybrid vehicles by providing incentives

OBJECTIVE 3      Improve island air quality.  Burning fossil fuels pollutes our air. Motor boats, lawn equipment, idling vehicles, all impact the Vineyard’s air quality. Diesel fuel is one of the contributors to particulate in the air that is responsible for the rise of asthma in the United States.  The island has a number of vehicle types that are diesel-powered:  the ferries; most of the buses used for public transit, schools and tourism; and vehicles and equipment used in construction, landscaping and agriculture.

STRATEGIES
3.1 Use available technologies to lessen impact diesel fuel use on the island.
3.2 Demonstrate viability of clean fuel alternatives  
3.3 Eliminate unnecessary vehicle idling
3.4 Curtail use of two-stroke engines

Further detail of these strategies is available in the full Island Energy and Waste Plan--available at the top of the page as a pdf.