Why Transportation Matters
If our country’s financial crisis and subsequent government bailout have made one thing clear, it’s that the next few years will be no cakewalk.By Andrew Bielak
October 31, 2008
Altamont Commuter Express train passengers get off the train in Santa Clara, Calif., and transfer to buses waiting to take them to their office buildings or other public transportation. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)Facing $10 trillion in public debt and mounting fears of a long-term recession, the next administration’s overriding goal will be to figure out what its priorities are—and which of them it is willing to sacrifice—before laying out a domestic and international agenda.
But for whoever takes office in January, one thing should be abundantly obvious: Our aging infrastructure and outdated transportation policies are desperately in need of repair and reform. If we seriously hope to create more jobs, lower costs for families and workers, and push our economy toward a greener future, we’re going to need some big ideas and bigger action.
On September 30, 2009, our existing transportation bill is set to expire, and Congress will look to allocate hundreds of billion of dollars that will shape how we build, design, and connect our communities. With limited capital available at the federal, state, and local level, it’s more important than ever that we make smart transportation investments to help address deeply interconnected issues like climate change, oil dependence, and household costs while creating a more competitive, sustainable economy. This will require progressives, and in particular young progressives, to take a more active role in debating and advocating responsible transportation policy.
The Impact on Americans
Since gas prices soared earlier this year, reporters have been searching for every possible angle to cover the increases in mass transit ridership and the impact of high fuel costs on commuters and businesses large and small. At the same time, politicians are grasping for solutions that they hope will placate their constituents before November 4.
With gas costs burning through households and our federal highway trust fund teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, transportation is quietly becoming a key issue for 2008. Unfortunately, as the issue gains attention at the national level, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the transportation system we have in place in unquestionably broken.
Middle-class workers are draining their household budgets with trips to the pump, struggling to move through their communities without adequate bikes paths or sidewalks, and facing service cuts or increased ridership fees in underfunded and overburdened public transit systems.
Millions of disadvantaged groups—from rural residents and minorities to seniors and low-income families—are facing the possibility of being shut out of American life because the costs of owning and operating a car are becoming untenable and reliable mass transit is unavailable.
And our federal government’s painfully outdated policies for funding transportation—which continue to devote 80 cents to highways for every 20 cents spent on transit—are doing little to solve our energy crisis, combat climate change, or help our economy compete internationally.
An Outdated System
Although last July’s absurd prices for crude oil, which topped off at nearly $148 per barrel, have been met by a thankful and much-needed drop below $70 a barrel—largely attributable to a reduction in consumer demand—hardly anybody expects gas prices to go back to their 1990s levels of a $1.30 per gallon. Even with the temporary drop in prices, consumers are looking for ways to save money and avoid using their cars, and plenty of experts believe that the price of crude oil could shoot back up and reach $200 per barrel within the next decade.
To understand how woefully unprepared we are for the day when that happens, you only need to take a few minutes looking at where we spend our transportation dollars—and then ask yourself what we get out it.
We’ve adopted zoning laws and tax incentives that favor the creation of sprawling, distant developments over compact, walkable communities, poured billions into underperforming highways at the expense of mass transit, and favored thousands of huge earmarks for a smattering of projects instead of developing a coherent set of policy goals.
As a result, for the nearly $70 billion the federal government spends on transportation each year, we get worsening congestion, crumbling roads and bridges, untenable transportation costs for American families, and strained transit agencies.
A Failure to Adjust to Changing Times
Fifty years ago, many of our policies that funded unrestricted, outward development and car dependence made plenty of sense. After all, during the Eisenhower administration, when we created the federal highway trust fund and kicked off the building of our interstate system, fuel was cheap, land was plentiful, and the development of automobile culture served as a massive engine for America’s economic growth.
Unfortunately, while many of the political and economic realities have fundamentally shifted, the continued influence of highway lobbyists, the temptation for easy pork-barrel spending, and the sheer stubbornness with which some cling to our car-dependent system has kept many of those outdated policies firmly in place.
Congress tends to pass new transportation bills every four to seven years, in which it lays out a spending plan for building, repairing, and maintaining the countries transportation infrastructure. By the time the most recent transportation bill was passed in 2005, the average price of gas had already passed $2.50 per gallon, more than double what it was a decade before. At the time, plenty of experts were warning us that prices weren’t going to start dropping anytime soon.
Nevertheless, that year’s SAFETEA-LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users) bill allocated $286 billion for transportation projects while doing little to the change the underlying structural direction—or lack thereof—in our transportation policy.
As predicted, gas prices continued to climb. The housing market crashed. And our economy sputtered and continues to do so today.
The Policies We Need
Americans are a resourceful lot, and we make due with a bad situation the best we can. With limited budgets and few good options, we’re hopping on buses and trains, searching for houses closer to work, and leaving our cars at home when we head to work or the grocery store.
It’s not hard to see that the market is responding to the mortgage crisis and resulting economic collapse—home prices have dropped precipitously in the distant suburbs while remaining steadyin manyurban centers, and some auto manufacturers are designing battery powered cars that could enter mass production within a few years.
But that’s not enough.
Our federal government needs to pick up on cues from economic experts, private-sector entrepreneurs, and ordinary Americans, and think broadly about what it can do to properly guide our transportation policy in the direction that millions of people are pushing it in.
We need to tie our land use and development patterns to transportation planning so we are prepared for a future in which fuel needs to be conserved. We need to give people adequate choices—which include walking, biking, and taking mass transit, as well as driving—to lower basic costs and prevent vulnerable populations from being shut out of social and economic life.
And most importantly, we need to invest in the smart, clean, efficient transportation projects that create long-term sustainable jobs, provide incentives for commercial and residential development, and promote domestic production in green industry.
A call to action
While the next transportation bill is scheduled to pass in slightly over a year, players on Capitol Hill are discussing the possibility of investing billions in infrastructure as part of a second stimulus package that could pass within the next couple of months.
Members of Congress, transportation insiders, and high-profile lobbyists are gearing up by thinking about where we could raise money and what would be the best transportation projects to spend it on.
To everyone who hasn’t always been involved in this debate—but is ready to make a difference—it’s time we started doing the same.
Andrew Bielak is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a communications associate at Transportation for America Campaign.
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