It is a bit like trying to define what one likes about motherhood and apple pie to try to define Quality of Life. Briefly, it's what makes a community or rural area memorable. Following are several items which seem to appear regularly in descriptions and transportation has a role in all of them:

• Safe, caring, and engaged communities
• Healthy, sustainable surroundings
• Quality job opportunities for the present generation and opportunities for their children
• Adequate, well-maintained infrastructure and governmental services
• Support for a mixture of income ranges & land uses
• Positive interactions with the other towns & cities in the region

In order to include quality of life as a measurement for evaluating transportation alternatives, it will be essential to carefully craft a set of measurements. The staff of the MPO agencies have collected a few examples which will be available for review during business hours, but here are some measures which have been used:

• Change in population/Change in Vehicle Miles Traveled
• Change in employment/Change in trips by car
• Changes in Density
• Proportion of travel by car/ transit/walking

Some general trends in the North-Central Berkshire area have been a loss of jobs & population, and an older average age than most other parts of Massachusetts. As in many other regions, the traditional central cities have been hardest hit with losses of jobs, stores, and tax dollars. The figure below shows actual US Census data and then forecasts of population prepared with a Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI) model. These forecasts were prepared in 1997, however initial update work suggests that not much has changed. The projections show an eventual, slow recovery partially due to the proximity of the Berkshires to many large metropolitan areas. This and much other data is available in the Berkshire County Data Book (BRPC, 1990)

The two cities in the North-Central Berkshire area and many of the town centers and smaller communities contain brownfield sites and some have vacant buildings. Brownfields are properties where the cost of bringing the property into regulatory environmental compliance exceeds the market value of the property when cleaned. Brownfields have significant quality of life impacts--even if actual health-threatening materials are not present. These include lowering property values, the opportunity for (and perception of) more illegal activities around vacant buildings, and unattractive lots that can gather trash.

These brownfield and vacant sites possess potential for redevelopment and in-fill. They address the common refrain of there not being enough room to develop within existing centers. Redeveloping brownfields and vacant properties improves access in a manner which has the least chance of increasing congestion - by providing access through proximity. Focusing general development in and around town centers and cities has that effect as well. (2)

Access management is a collection of strategies to help vehicles turn in and out of sites safely while moving through traffic along a street or highway with a minimum of interruptions. It is most often applied to arterial highways with high levels of traffic and may be lined with businesses. Access can be managed by engineering type solutions, by changing land use regulations, or in a number of other ways.

Sprawl is the unplanned expansion of development at low densities away from the urban center. The private marketplace optimizes each individual development in ways which are not necessarily the most efficient or desirable from the overall public viewpoint.

Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It can also include the concept of meeting the needs of the local community without jeopardizing quality of life of any other community in the region.(2)

1. "Oregon Shines II: Highlights" (Salem, OR: Oregon Progress Board, 1997)
2. "Transportation & Sustainable Development, Issue Paper for Transportation Redefined II" (St. Louis, MO: East-West Gateway Transportation Council, 1998)
3. BRPC Commissioner's Handbook (Pittsfield, MA: BRPC, 1998)
4. New Visions Workbook (Albany, NY: Capital District Transportation Committee, 1995)
5. "Urban Reinvestment & Economic Competitiveness" (White Plains, NY: Land Use Law Reporter Series 2, Number 1, 1994)
6. Draft Strategy for Site Development to Enhance the Economy of Berkshire County

(Pittsfield, MA: Community Investment Associates, April 1999)