MB Civic

Stuck In Traffic

Anne P. Canby

June 30, 2006

Anne P. Canby is president of the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP). She previously led state transportation departments in Delaware and New Jersey.

In the last week of June, a convoy of trucks rolled into the nation’s capital, part of an industry-supported effort to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the interstate highway system. They carried the hopes of road builders that their journey will somehow awaken the public to the needs of the nation’s ailing highway system.

Undeniably, President Eisenhower’s vision of a network of superhighways, connecting our larger cities and states, was an undertaking worthy of both celebration and reflection. It should remind us of the value and importance of having a clear vision for a desired outcome.

But for many of us, the recent interstate celebration effort missed a real opportunity to talk about the vision and leadership that will be needed to help us meet the very real transportation challenges of the next 50 years.

Instead, the underlying message of this celebration seems to be “all car, all the time”: more lanes, higher speeds and ever rising volumes of cars on the highways. The highway interests want to use the interstates to frame the next round of battles over the focus and direction of the federal transportation program. The tired formulation of highways versus transit, rail and other options, unfortunately, has little to do with how the public thinks about these issues.

Simply put, the public wants more travel options. There should be improvements that allow children to walk or bike safely to school, more convenient and dependable transit services connecting them to their workplace or entertainment venues, development patterns that make it possible to walk to neighborhood stores for some of their essential needs.

Giving the public what it wants can move us forward on many other seemingly intractable problems. We already know the public is troubled by high gas prices and the burden they impose on working families. Recent polls tell us that Americans are especially motivated to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. If our goal is energy independence, adding expanding travel options to our strategies for alternative fuels and higher fuel economy standards will move us toward this goal much faster.

Increasing travel options lowers per capita energy use by reducing the amount of driving on the roads. Alternatives to auto travel help us make progress on other resource challenges. They reduce the amount of land consumed for development. They lower harmful air emissions. They improve water quality by reducing the runoff from hard surfaces dedicated to parking, new highway capacity, widened streets and so on. More walking, biking, and transit services help us confront the very real challenges of an aging population, since most Americans telling us they want to age in place, even in places built for the automobile where other ways to travel are limited or nonexistent. And then there is climate change—not only real, but accelerating faster than even scientists were predicting. A recent study by Environmental Defense shows that cars and light trucks in the U.S. are responsible for 45 percent of the CO2 emitted by automobiles around the world.

Recently, I met with transportation leaders in the Los Angeles area to discuss strategies for how the federal transportation law Congress passed in 2005 could help further these outcomes. Often viewed as the epicenter of auto dependency and sprawling development, Los Angeles is making dramatic changes. Transportation leaders are listening to calls for the reengineering of their transportation systems and acting on the public’s desire for more travel options and smarter development patterns. These efforts are already paying off. Los Angeles County’s transit agency reported a 10 percent increase in bus ridership, or one million more riders in May over last year. Monthly ridership on its rail systems jumped 18 percent. Major new commitments to rail and bus transit, transit-oriented development and facilities to support more walking and biking are in the pipeline. Development patterns have shifted so much that many parts of Los Angeles now have higher densities than New York City.

President Eisenhower showed how a vision, backed by a strong public consensus, can profoundly change our nation. We are now beginning to define a national vision that will help us realize a new set of national goals for a 21st century transportation system. All the pieces are there—if we use our common sense and listen to what the public is telling us.