Jason Lally is an urban planner at Place Matters, a non-profit that works to build sustainable communities through better decision making. Place Matters is a co-tenant, along with the Progressive Future national office, of the Alliance Center in Denver – a home for non-profits committed to sustainability and progressive work.
De-Railed: How Balanced Transportation will restore American Prosperity
We have a crisis in this country of monumental scale. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives our infrastructure a grade of D. This isn’t even a passing grade, and we really should expect something above average. ASCE estimates that to raise the grade, we will need an investment in infrastructure of $1.6 trillion over five years.
To add insult to injury, we have seen the highest gas prices ever even when adjusted for inflation all while billions of taxpayer dollars are going to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fuel prices have driven up the cost of food and other domestic goods, tightening the budgets of American families. Call it a recession, a slowdown, or whatever you want, but our economy is no longer the envy of the developed world.
Faced with such an alarming set of circumstances, it is time for bold leadership by the federal government. We need a visionary strategic plan to help this country adapt to the new circumstances in which we find ourselves. If we look to even the earliest bits of our history, we can see examples of visionary leadership that should point us in the right direction.
Just about 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson, and his Secretary of Treasury, Albert Gallatin set forth on an ambitious plan to link the young nation with a series of canals and roads. The “Gallatin Plan” was a practical and necessary response to challenges for the growing republic. The plan promoted the easy movement of goods and people around the country, accruing a number of economic benefits for growing cities and regions as well as laying the groundwork for westward expansion and the growth of the Union.
Unfortunately, the federal treasury dwindled during the War of 1812 and the plan could not be carried out in exactly the way imagined. However, recognizing the powerful vision of Gallatin’s plan, the states stepped in to implement. With the support of New York merchants, the Erie Canal, a 363 mile link from the Hudson River in Albany to Lake Erie in Buffalo, was more ambitious than any of Gallatin’s original links. This major investment was instrumental in the economic growth of not only New York but of the nation as it opened up travel into the interior.
The examples of federal vision and practical ingenuity abound in history: the national rail system and Homestead Act under Lincoln, the massive conservation efforts by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, and the planning of a national highway system by Franklin Roosevelt and its eventual implementation by Eisenhower in 1956. (I cannot do these great national planning efforts justice here, but for an articulate and comprehensive history, read Robert Fishman’s paper, National Planning for America.)
Each bold vision was a response to real national problems that transcended partisan politics. We are due for another bold vision. To promote a higher quality of life, decrease dependence on foreign oil, protect national security, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions, we need new lines drawn on the map. These lines should represent new transit connections between and within major metropolitan regions.
According to Neal Pierce, metropolitan regions contain about 85 percent of our population. Mega-regions, which the America2050 initiative defines as “agglomerations of metropolitan regions with integrated labor markets, infrastructure, and land use systems,” are new emerging units in the equation of global economic competitiveness. Increasing mobility within these mega-regions is paramount to reducing emissions, vehicle miles traveled, congestion, and dependence on foreign oil, while increasing our economic prosperity. The answer to increasing mobility is a federal policy and vision that funds balanced transportation investments in a strategic fashion, with large scale capital investment in transit infrastructure (e.g., light rail, bus rapid transit, high speed rail, and commuter rail).
I am happy to report that this kind of thinking is gaining momentum on Capitol Hill, if not in the White House. At the beginning of this year, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced two resolutions commemorating the 200th and 100th anniversaries of the Gallatin Plan and Roosevelt’s Conference of Governors. H.R. 935 and H.R. 936 both resolve that the House of Representatives:
“supports the creation of a new national plan for transportation improvements to align the demands for economic development with the resources of the Nation.”
Even more recently, America2050 reports the passing of two new bills authorizing increased funding for Amtrak and high speed rail. H.R. 6003, the “Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008,” grants $14.4 billion for Amtrak over the next 5 years. H.R. 6004, the “Rail Infrastructure Development and Expansion Act for the 21st Century," authorizes $12 billion of tax-credit bonds and the same in tax exempt bonds for new high speed rail corridors over the next 10 years.
Transportation policy is not the sexiest campaign issue and rarely attracts the attention of presidential candidates, but it turns out that it may be one of the most important to remaining economically competitive. It is time for vision and coordination that moves past partisan politics and addresses the reality of our current situation. Let us leave a legacy to the future that maintains America’s prosperity for 100 years and beyond.
