AS WE ADD MILLIONS: HOW DO WE STAY MOBILE?
November 26, 2006
By 2043, we're being told, there won't just be 300 million of us -- there will be 400 million. With the roadways around our metropolitan regions increasingly clogged, how will we ever stay mobile?
Depending on the tea leaves you choose, some vividly contrasting futures emerge.
Vision No. 1 is ``stay the course.'' Keep driving as we have. In 1980, 64.4 percent of us drove to work alone; in 2000 it was 75.7 percent, according to the Transportation Research Board's recent ``Commuting in America'' survey by Alan Pisarski.
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This is the hottest new trend, discussed intensely by governors, state transportation officials and state legislators. Multibillion-dollar roadway investments by private financing firms are increasing fast. We've reached what transportation expert C. Kenneth Orski calls a critical ``tipping point.''
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But still, says Thomas Downs, president of the Eno Transportation Foundation, politicians will have to face deep public doubts about selling off public assets or explaining why they condemn peoples' property to build for-profit roads.
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So is there a Vision No. 3? Yes, there's a set of tea leaves that says so -- the vote of many Americans earlier this month to support new and expanded public transit. Transit proposals with cumulative value of $40 billion were approved from Rhode Island to Minnesota, Missouri to Utah to California.
My next column will ask: Is Vision No. 3 a sentimental throwback, or a powerful alternative for this century?