John Petro
Say it Ain’t So, Barack and Joe
TO: Barack Obama, Joe Biden
FROM: Me
RE: Transportation Secretary
My vision is having a Transportation Secretary that understands that we need drastic change in the way that our national transportation system is designed and funded. For too many years, our transportation system has been based on one thing: moving as many cars through a given area as possible. A new Transportation Secretary would realize how this policy has negatively affected the way that we consume energy and develop new housing and commercial areas. By concentrating the vast bulk of transportation funding on highways and roads, we have created a situation in which Americans have no choice but to drive for most of their daily trips. This is bad for our climate, as carbon dioxide emission have led to global warming. It is bad for our health as children and adults walk and bike less. It is bad for our undeveloped greenfields, as the roads encourage more sprawling suburban and exurban development.
A new Transportation Secretary should know that the issues of transportation, energy, and land use are interconnected. All of these issues affect our environmental sustainability.
A new Transportation Secretary should know that we cannot possibly build enough roadway to defeat traffic congestion, that more roads create more traffic. The secretary should also know that Americans are driving less and taking mass transit more often. When Americans are given alternative choices to driving, many of them will choose to take transit, walk, or bike.
A new Transportation Secretary should know that a new high-speed rail system could relieve the congestion in the skies and at our airports. If we wish to remain competitive globally, we will have to build high-speed rail systems that are equal or better to the ones that are being built by the dozen in Europe, Japan, and China.
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Posted at 11:44 AM, Dec 19, 2008 in
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