A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity

This is our chance to rethink decades-old transportation strategies and help solve the climate crisis

This overview is from our New York Regional Director and Deputy Director, Energy Program, Andy Darrell.

Our team at Environmental Defense Fund has been working for decades to address the fundamental flaws in our nation's transportation polices, which have long shaped Americans' travel choices.

Now, powerful forces are lining up and creating a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink our transportation strategies and put the U.S. at the forefront of clean, affordable travel options.

Fixing our transportation system is critical

• Hit by steep gas prices in 2008 and tough economic times, we Americans are dramatically shifting the way we travel. The average American now pays more than $2,000 each year on fuel just to get to and from work. The only bigger slice of the average American budget is housing. 

Over the past year, Americans have started driving less, trading in gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient vehicles, and using public transportation like never before.

• Public transit systems are squeezed, too. Demand for public transit is at an all-time high, soaring to rates not seen since 1957. Across the country, places as diverse as New York City, Southern California, North Carolina and Wyoming are witnessing sharp rises (see map).

Yet many cash-strapped state and local governments — squeezed by dwindling tax revenue and rising expenses — are cutting back public transit services. And few of us — less than one-fifth of all households — have access to adequate bus or train service.

• The need to address global warming is urgent, and transportation is a key to solving the climate crisis. How we shape our transportation policies profoundly affects not only the lives of everyday Americans but also the stability of the world’s climate: transportation accounts for more than a third of our nation's global warming pollution.
   
• In 2009, Congress will consider broad-reaching transportation legislation. Bills that address the energy crisis and authorize more transit funding have been introduced in the Senate and the House, but have stalled. Our team will be pressing congressional leaders to work out a compromise bill. 

More importantly, the nation's main transportation bill is up for reauthorization in 2009. This bill will determine transportation funding and incentives for the next five years, and it’s a critical opportunity to fund smart transit choices.

If the urgency of stabilizing our climate weren’t enough, there are other compelling reasons we need to overhaul transportation polices:

• Traffic is killing us and sapping our economy. Traffic-clogged streets take a heavy toll on public health and sap economic vitality through wasted fuel and lost revenues.


• Our aging transportation infrastructure is crumbling. The last major investment was in the 1950s, when the federal government built the Interstate Highway System.

For all these reasons, Environmental Defense Fund is engaged in a broad, ambitious campaign to improve our transportation options.

Our plan for transforming the nation’s transportation

Foremost, we are calling on Washington for a new innovative transportation infrastructure policy. We have our work cut out for us — unfortunately, government and industry have lagged woefully behind in investing in smarter, cleaner transportation.

Our transportation director Michael Replogle will lead legislative efforts to get adequate investment in smart transit solutions and policies that reward innovation in clean solutions.

On a local and regional level, our history of involvement in big metropolitan areas lets us test and model solutions that can be used elsewhere:

• With the support of my New York team, I will continue to work with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and state leaders to make New York City a model of innovative transit and green energy solutions. The city, with extraordinary support from residents, came remarkably close to passing a congestion pricing plan, and we will keep striving for innovative solutions to ease traffic and improve public transit.
• In the San Joaquin Valley, Kathryn Phillips, manager of our Clean Air for Life campaign helped design and advocate an innovative rule — the Indirect Source Rule — that requires developers to use energy and traffic-reducing designs to cut air pollution — or else pay a fee to cut nearby pollution.

Innovative transit concepts: On-the-ground realities

Thanks to forward-thinking leaders around the world, we already have a suite of transit options that can whisk people to their destination affordably and comfortably. We don’t need costly, new megaprojects (think New York City's infamous Second Avenue Subway).

Our report Reinventing Transit showcases a new generation of public transit operating in communites across America. See case studies and videos of these innovative systems in action.

We’re working for policies that extend these options to more locations across the country:

• Bus Rapid Transit. Buses that operate in dedicated lanes off-limits to other vehicles can be as quick as a subway or light rail, but are much cheaper to deploy. 
• Hybrid-electric buses can cut greenhouse gas emissions and fuel costs.
• Shuttle buses can ease the growing parking problem at commuter rail stations. (Find out more about innovative, pleasant bus service.)
• Safe bike lanes and walkable cities lure people to use pedal or foot power.

Tax breaks and incentives can reinforce the trend toward driving less and taking public transit instead:

• Carrots for using mass transit (such as pre-tax transit subsidy programs) or for driving less (for example, pay-as-you-drive car insurance) and
• Sticks for driving during peak times (congestion pricing).

At a crossroads: Let's take a new path

It took decades to create today's transportation and energy crisis. We won't solve it overnight. But supporting public transportation and other fuel-efficient, environmentally responsible travel options is an important first step.

Over the next several years, we have the chance to harness the converging forces for the public good and tackle climate change, the most serious problem of our time.  It's time to stop listening to road lobbyists and meet the public's call for real change.

Sincerely,

Andy Darrell

Posted: 30-Oct-2008; Updated: 06-Oct-2008