Hopeful signs from Montpelier  Also, check out our new side-column featuring a few items of interest from outside Vermont.  Most recent–an audio story about rural transportation challenges in Maine and a podcast on the liberal blind spot for cars. We’ve added a comment section below every post,  so if you’d like to add your thoughts, feel free. But please–be respectful. Walking the Walk If you want better transit, perhaps a first step it to put someone  in charge who depends on it every day. Richard Watts and Julie Campoli discuss  ways the new car-free House Transportation Chair might help transit thrive. Report from the House Transportation Committee State Reo,Mary Sullivan on why we need to reduce  travel-related carbon emissions and  what the Vermont Legislature’s Transportation Committee plans to do about it. If you have ideas abut how Vermont, and other rural places, can move toward a more sustainable transportation system, please get in touch. We welcome short essays and reports from the field from policy makers, transportation and land use planners, housing and health advocates, citizen activists and others working on issues affecting sustainable mobility, as well as regular folks who live with the impacts of our transportation system every day. We’d like to hear your story.  Email us at sustranspovt@gmail.com