Congress for the New Urbanism CEO John Norquist warns the President-elect on the pitfalls of moving without consideration on the portion of the economic stimulus package calling for new roads and bridges. He writes:

With six weeks to go before he moves into the White House, Barack Obama is practically running the national two-minute drill with the game on the line.

He’s being told that the only thing worse than delay in dealing with our economic crisis is timidity. Like the trillions in aid to the banking system, the broader stimulus package better come quickly. And it better not be small. “I don’t know what the final number is but it’s going to be a big number,” Obama advisor Austan Goolsbee told CBS’ Face the Nation. Most recently, Senator Chuck Schumer put the number at $500 to $700 billion.

Every economist worth his or her Phd from Harvard or MIT agrees that investment in infrastructure can help jump-start the economy. Departments of transportation (the DOTs) in states across the country have billions in projects “ready to go,” they point out. As soon as the federal money flows, the bulldozers and dump trucks can be fired up and the crews will be back to work.

 But here lies a trap for President-Elect Obama. For decades, state DOTs have single-mindedly been building highways and arterial roads designed exclusively to move lots of cars and trucks over longer and longer distances. These roads have some benefits, but also some significant negative side effects. This focus on big roads is a key reason we’re so dependent on foreign oil and it’s the biggest single cause of our enormous per capita carbon emissions. The big road strategy has been fully tested in Detroit where almost every freeway ever dreamed of has been built. The result is a city with little congestion and less than half the population it had in 1960. 

As he prepares to act with “deliberate haste,” Obama is receiving good advice to steer stimulus dollars towards efficient public transportation systems, something Americans will thank him for the next time gasoline prices spike. He’s also told to “fix it first,” a good strategy to the extent it applies to structurally deficient bridges. It will help us avoid future catastrophes like the fallen I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis. But too often, what DOTs want to fix first are highways and bridges that they deem “functionally deficient,” meaning they lack extra-wide lines to carry maximum traffic at top speeds all the time. But as we can see from Detroit and many other US cities, building to maximize capacity can be counterproductive.

For example, one of the projects Obama will be told is ready to go is a multi-billion dollar plan to widen Louisville’s riverfront freeway by 75 feet, further isolating the city’s downtown from the valuable Ohio River banks. Another is the nearly $2 billion plan to “fix” Interstate 94 by widening and “modernizing” it from Milwaukee all the way to the Illinois state line. With driving falling nationally for seven straight months, this is the kind of plan Exxon might dream up to get cars back on the road. Though it won’t achieve any significant reductions in drive times, it is projected to add more than 200,000 automobile miles per day. Say hello to 155,000 pounds in new daily carbon emissions (assuming cars average 25 miles to the gallon).

Now President-Elect Obama need not swear off pavement altogether. Let’s pave a lot and employ every construction worker we can. There are plenty of good stimulus-ready projects. They involve reinvesting in  avenues, boulevards and streets that serve not just as traffic conduits but also as the setting for jobs, shopping and living. They are projects like the rebuilding of East Boulevard in Charlotte, a former traffic-choked strip that now distributes traffic more effectively and has become a thriving retail destination catering to both drivers and pedestrians. Or the elegant Octavia Boulevard in San Francisco: it replaced the elevated Central Artery, helping traffic distribute more efficiently and adding investment to the area.

These streets form the spines of real walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods with green jobs and a green economy. They are ready to go. Research from the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Brookings Institution reveals that many familiar places — the walkable hearts of Evanston, Illinois, Pasadena, California and many similar places across the country — are already so efficient that residents drive less than half the national average and generate less than half as much in driving-related carbon emissions as well. 

I expect that like a good quarterback Obama will see this playing field clearly. He’ll recognize that projects that aspire simply to attract more vehicles are infrastructure to nowhere, strategically speaking. Instead, he’ll insist on investments that get people where they need to be while creating livable places, supporting valuable economic activity and reducing our oil dependency and global warming emissions. When he does that, he’ll see the streets and blocks of walkable, transit-served neighborhoods — and the development of the real estate itself in these places — as pieces of our smart-energy future, just like wind farms and hybrid vehicles. Let’s invest in infrastructure that helps American perform better economically and environmentally.

share

Dave Reid, December 16, 2008

It is clear a stimulus is coming but let's hope the individual projects within it don't continue promoting an unsustainable future by expanding freeways and such.

Link: http://urbanmilwaukee.com

Sharon, December 17, 2008

Since the focus is on roads, lets work together to promote, "smart streets" - these are streets that include street car tracks, bike lanes, and green infrastructure. How about a street project that digs up streets in every urban area throughout our country and retools it for to become pedestrian-friendly, transit friendly, bike-friendly and while we are at it, we can put the wires underground, put in broadband and create plug-in mobility stations for shared cars. That is the kind of road building that will create lots of jobs while lessening our carbon footprint and ultimately save consumers a lot of money while making our urban areas more liveable.

Link: igocars.org

Issac S., December 31, 2008

Two major Detroit newspapers in need of extra cash are putting an end to daily home delivery. Why have newspapers fallen on such hard times? Sure, the economy is taking down victims all over the country, but newspapers began their decline before the current economic crisis.

Link: http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/12/16/newspapers-cut-daily-delivery-to-save-extra-cash/

Post a Comment

*Name:

E-mail Address:

URL:

*Comment:

Please type this word:

*required fields. your email address will not be published

Please leave the following field blank: