America's economic crisis presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve reform in critical areas, from energy to health care. One of those key reform opportunities lies in our transportation system.
Since WWII, we've built a land use pattern and social/economic structure almost entirely dependent on roads, highways, and the personal automobile for transportation. That reliance on a single mode of transit is primarily responsible for many of our most severe environmental and economic problems today.
To name just a few: Addiction to oil, mostly imported from increasingly unstable suppliers; Urban sprawl that devours farmland, strips tree cover, and drains the economic base of our city/town centers; Metro region air pollution and its contributions to rising asthma and heart disease rates; Escalating storm water runoff from spreading seas of pavement, degrading our water supplies, dropping our groundwater levels, and dramatically increasing flooding; Urban decay as older strip malls are abandoned in favor of newer ones, further out. The list goes on.
As we have built this ever-increasing network of roads and highways, the cost of maintaining it has kept rising-but we haven't kept up. The inevitable results include dramatic bridge collapses that highlight the more mundane litany of deteriorating road conditions.
The economic stimulus package approved last month contains nearly $30 billion for surface transportation projects. That will help kick-start spending for a short-term economic stimulus, as intended, but it will put hardly a measurable dent in the backlog of project demands.
In the Piedmont Triad region, for example, one of the largest uses of the transportation stimulus funds will be a multi-million dollar pavement rehabilitation project on a potholed stretch of I-40. That will smooth millions of rides for the next few years, but it won't touch the issue of how to deal with rising travel needs in the long-term.
If we're going to take on this challenge, we're finally going to have to grasp the reality that we can't afford to build all the streets, highways, and bridges projected as needed under our current approach to transportation (much less maintain them too). Increasing numbers of thoughtful citizens see that we've covered our eyes for decades while our road maintenance debt has dammed up and overflowed.
More importantly, the public is beginning to understand that solving these problems will require more than patching the potholes. Already, three out of four Americans favor improving intercity rail and transit, and over half believe that the federal government should do more to improve trains and light rail systems.
In fact, transit ridership was up by four percent last year over the year before, reaching its highest levels in 52 years. That trend of rising ridership defied falling gas prices and job losses, helping to demonstrate that Americans are ready to take transit options when quality service is made available. Some of the biggest increases in transit ridership came in southern and western cities comparable to North Carolina's growing urban regions, not just in the older metropolises long known for their transit systems.
Now, we must use the "teachable moment" of this crisis to fundamentally overhaul our approach to transportation in our nation and state.
We must develop a balanced transportation system which provides choices, including a renaissance in passenger rail and public mass transit, plus safe walking and biking options. We must also integrate land use and future growth planning with transportation policy.
By planning and building public transit, including rail options, in a way that will serve future growth, we serve both our environment and our economy. We control sprawl by encouraging more compact development.
By expanding sidewalks, bike lanes, and greenways in existing neighborhoods, and requiring their inclusion in new development, we reduce the need to drive everywhere in our cities and towns. We help build a future that will be greener, healthier, and more affordable for all.
This process is already underway in our state. We need only look at the spectacular early success of Charlotte's Lynx Blue Line to see how light rail in North Carolina can take off fast, greatly exceed ridership estimates, and boost local economies by facilitating transit-oriented development. Our state legislature is now considering authority for other metro counties to finance their own rail systems. From Asheville to Wilmington-and in towns and cities across the state-we see a growing boom in greenways for biking and pedestrian connections.
For a healthy, practical, and affordable future, we must seize today's opportunities to set course for a balanced and sustainable transportation system.
Dan Besse is an attorney and a member of the Winston-Salem City Council.
