All posts from the month of March 2010
Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign a positive step, but must emphasize transportation voices
March 31, 2010By Lilly Shoup
In February, First Lady Michelle Obama announced her exciting “Let’s Move” campaign and the goal of seriously confronting childhood obesity in the United States within a generation. Now, the campaign – more formally known as the Presidential Task Force on Childhood Obesity – is getting to work on an action plan to influence federal policy.
This is a great start, but there’s an omission: the task force has not emphasized the potential role for the U.S. Department of Transportation. The link between physical activity and the built environment is well established – transportation practices strongly influence physical activity and health outcomes for Americans of all ages.
An active living approach to physical activity incorporates walking and bicycling into everyday activities. Forty years ago, more than half of children walked and bicycled to school, contributing to exercise and good health. Today, less than 15 percent of children walk or bike school, with the rest ferried by school buses or car. Children who have access to safe, convenient and ample walking and bicycling opportunities in their community develop active transportation habits that can last a lifetime.
Michelle Obama has been a positive role model for children and a leader in promoting healthy habits. Let’s make sure the influence of transportation and the built environment are a part of the Let’s Move effort. More walking and biking = healthier kids.
You can see Transportation for America’s comments on the First Lady’s task force here.
Today’s Headlines – 3/31/10
March 31, 2010By Transportation for America
Newspapers around the country covered a T4 America sponsored poll showing widespread support for public transportation and transit choices. (Dallas Morning News, Cleveland News-Herald, Pittsburgh Gazette, Orlando Sentinel)
One highlight of the poll was the level of support for transit among rural and small town Americans. (Streetsblog Capitol Hill)
Auto-dependent regions lagging in business growth benefit from the increased security and flexibility in health care reform. (TNR)
The Governor of Washington State signed an $8.5 billion transportation budget that includes significant support for rail and ferries. (Seattle Times)
And, a proposed fuel tax in compromise climate legislation could be effective, if structured properly. (Mother Jones)
Housing and transportation squeeze hitting rural America, new reports concludes
March 30, 2010By Sean Barry
When the Center for Neighborhood Technology released its revised Housing and Transportation Index last week, much of the focus naturally tilts toward cities due to the measurement of metropolitan areas. But CNT’s rural companion report on transportation costs in less-populated areas deserves ample attention as well.
The transportation challenges for rural America have more to do with factors like access and opportunity than congestion and traffic. With volatile energy prices and longer distances between employment, groceries and health services, transportation choices are essential. More than 1.6 million rural households do not have access to a car, making routine trips a strain on a family’s time and budget. For those who do drive, high gas prices take a big chunk out of monthly incomes. Rural residents with cars drive about 17 percent more miles each year than their urban counterparts.
CNT’s analysis finds rural residents feeling squeezed in every corner of America, from Alaska to Alabama. In the areas near Billings, Montana, average annual household gas expenses have reached $5,300 per year, up from just $2000 per year just a decade ago. Costs shot up $3,200 between 2000 and 2008 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In the rural pockets surrounding Las Cruces, New Mexico, costs were up $3,100. In the image below, turquoise indicates Billings-area communities where yearly housing and transportation costs exceed the 45 percent threshold.
The CNT formula defines true affordability as less than 45 percent of household income going toward housing and transportation costs combined.
The website features profiles of communities in both rural and metro areas alike.
CNT’s three recommendations for inclusion in a new transportation bill are: 1) making transportation costs as transparent as possible; 2) using a similar yardstick as the true affordability in future policies and funding priorities for transportation; and 3) increasing incentives for projects that increase transit options and proximity to employment and housing. Support for passenger rail and intercity buses — both heavily-relied upon in sparser parts of the country —can and should fit under these policy umbrellas.
But rural livability is much more than just a discussion topic in Washington D.C. Stephen Lee Davis of Smart Growth America (and a Transportation for America colleague,) recently wrote about his experience living in Bentonville, Arkansas, a medium-sized town known best as the world headquarters for Wal-Mart Stores. In a two-part series on the Smart Growth America blog, Steve questioned the political figures who see livability as disconnected from America’s rural areas and small towns:
…for me and my wife and many others living in the older part of the city [street grid] in those weeks [in 2005] with astronomical gas prices, a pretty normal life was still possible, even while trying to cut back driving significantly to save money. Several weekends in a row, we parked our cars entirely, and managed to do our grocery shopping, go to church, visit friends, or listen to bluegrass in the square on a Friday night without having to get in either of our two cars. We walked 5 minutes to the grocery store. We biked to Walmart a handful of times — receiving many strange looks in the process. We went to eat at a new restaurant on the square. We went hiking on a short trail in the woods right on the edge of downtown. We went to the library.
Sounds pretty “livable,” right?
…and explained how current transportation policy has failed the residents of towns like Bentonville.
People who live in classic American small towns like Bentonville know a thing or two about livability. There’s nothing “livable” about being stuck in your subdivision that got built too far from town, work or school when gas prices get too high. Nor is it “livable” to have the federal government incentivizing (through money to the State DOT) the widening of highways into the county to encourage more sprawl outside of town even as the city is clamoring for more investment inside of it.
Like their urban counterparts, many residents in rural areas and small towns hope to preserve what they love about their way of life while making it easier to get by — and get around. CNT’s work helps to bring those challenges to light and move policy in a direction that produces results.
New poll shows Americans strongly support public transportation; more walking & biking
March 30, 2010By Stephen Lee Davis
American voters overwhelmingly support broader access to public transportation and safe walking and biking, according to this new national poll conducted for Transportation for America and released to the media today this afternoon. With the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ramping up efforts to draft a new long-term transportation bill before the end of the year, the results should be instructive to Senators.
You can read the full details about the poll, including a full presentation on the findings at http://t4america.org/resources/2010survey
More than four-in-five voters (82 percent) say that “the United States would benefit from an expanded and improved transportation system,” including modes of transportation like rail and buses. An overwhelming majority of voters agree with this statement — no matter where they live. Even in rural America, 79 percent of voters agreed with the statement, despite much lower use of public transportation compared to urban Americans.
Some in Washington believe that building or expanding more roads is the best way to tackle congestion — but the majority of Americans don’t agree with them. Three-in-five voters choose improving public transportation and making it easier to walk and bike over building more roads and expanding existing roads as the best strategies for tackling congestion. (59% to 38%).
Click the graphic to read more about the poll. Find something interesting or surprising? Share it with us in the comments.
New Poll Shows Americans Support Increased Funding for Public Transportation, Safe Walking and Biking
March 30, 2010By Transportation for America
Agreement across political and geographical lines offers guidance for development of next transportation bill
WASHINGTON D.C. – As a key Senate committee ramps up efforts to draft a new long-term transportation bill, Transportation for America today released poll results demonstrating overwhelming American support for increased access to public transportation and safe walking and biking.
Read more about the poll findings, including a detailed presentation on the findings at http://t4america.org/resources/2010survey
Central to the poll’s findings was strong support for increased transportation options, and accountability for future spending, across both geographic areas and political lines. More than four-in-five voters (82 percent) say that “the United States would benefit from an expanded and improved transportation system,” that includes rail and buses. This view is held by an overwhelming majority of voters in every part of the country. Even in rural America, 79 percent of voters agreed with the statement, despite much lower use of public transportation compared to urban Americans.
While saying they would like to able to use other options, 73 percent of those surveyed indicated that they have “no choice but to drive as much as [they] do,” even as a substantial majority say they would like to spend less time in the car.
“In small towns and big cities alike, Americans are saying loudly and clearly that their lives would be better, and their nation stronger, if we had world-class public transportation and more options for walking and bicycling,” said Geoff Anderson, co-chair of the Transportation for America campaign and President and CEO of Smart Growth America.
“If Americans themselves were crafting the transportation bill,” Anderson said, “we would see a doubling of the share for public transportation; an ironclad system of accountability for restoring existing roads and bridges before simply building more of them; and a strong commitment to making all our streets safe enough for kids to bicycle to school or so seniors can walk to nearby restaurants or the drug store.”
A strong majority of voters indicated that current funding levels for public transportation are insufficient, with 58 percent saying more should be allocated toward bus, rail and other services. The desire to increase the amount of funding allocated to options beyond roads and highways was shared across demographic, geographic and political lines, including:
- 67% of residents in the Northeast, 58% in the West, 57% in the Midwest, and 52% in the South.
- 62% of urban areas, 59% of suburbanites, 60% in small towns and 50% in rural areas.
- 66% of Democrats, 59% of Independents, and 49% of Republicans.
The survey also found that Americans of every political affiliation and income level are convinced that an expanded system of reliable public transportation is needed to ensure that everyone – regardless of age or income – has access to jobs and necessities.
“In these tough times, Americans also are especially sensitive to the plight of low-wage workers, seniors and the disabled, who need reliable and affordable ways to get where they need to go,” said John Robert Smith, former mayor of Meridian, MS and co-chair of Transportation for America and President of Reconnecting America.
“We urge Congress to keep the hopes and desires revealed in this survey in mind as they take up a new transportation law that just about everyone agrees must be a transformative departure from the status quo,” Smith said.
The survey was conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates, a Democratic firm, and Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican firm, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Co-released with Smart Growth America
Today’s Headlines – 3/30/10
March 30, 2010By Transportation for America
U.S. transit agencies ramped up security measures following a suicide bombing on Moscow’s subway yesterday. (AP)
New Jersey transit riders, especially seniors and people with disabilities, decried proposed cuts at a public hearing last week. (Atlanticville)
Despite increased partisan rancor, transportation infrastructure still has the potential to transcend political party. (Philly)
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell expects word from the U.S. DOT on tolling 1-80 within two weeks. (Post-Gazette)
And, some propose a congestion charge to ease the worse-than-ever gridlock around Washington D.C. (Greater Greater Washington)
Today’s Headlines – 3/29/10
March 29, 2010By Transportation for America
Proposed fare increases on Washington DC buses would hit low-income commuters hardest. (WP)
Prospects remain positive for action on a new transportation bill this year, says key House chairman Jim Oberstar. (DCStreetsblog)
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to ramp up transit projects has strong support on Capitol Hill. (LA Times)
A leading Republican challenger to Senator Barbara Boxer in California was attacked by a conservative group for supporting gas tax increases. (Fresno Bee)
In North Carolina, new road construction is not targeted at congested areas. (News-Observer)
And, Bicycle activists in Lee County, Florida are pushing a plan to make biking safer and more accessible. (News-Press)
Today’s Headlines – 3/26/10
March 26, 2010By Transportation for America
Offshore drilling could be a sticking point in climate change legislation talks. (Hill)
By a single vote, the Maryland State Senate passed a ban on drivers using hand-held cell phones. (WP)
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has gotten largely positive feedback for his call not stop favoring motorized over non-motorized transport, but industry groups were a little less impressed. (TNR)
Kaid Benfield at NRDC defends use of the phrase “avid bicyclist.” (NRDC Blog)
And, failure to make long-term investments in the built environment could short change future generations. (Grist)
Today’s Headlines – 3/25/10
March 25, 2010By Transportation for America
The Center for Neighborhood Technology’s report on transportation costs and housing struck a cord in sprawling Texas. (Houston Chronicle)
New York City transit riders face further cuts in bus and subway service after a Metropolitan Transportation Authority vote last night. (NYT)
Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, hopes to extend opportunities for women and minority-owned businesses. (DOT Blog)
Smart growth and urban redevelopment is outpacing suburban construction, according to a new EPA report. (NYT)
And, Senator John Kerry is trying to neutralize industry opposition to climate change legislation. (Roll Call)
Reconsidering how we measure housing affordability by including transportation costs
March 24, 2010By Sean Barry
Americans have spent the last several decades moving farther and farther away from urban centers, in search of affordability. Rapidly growing communities ranging from the sunbelt cul-de-sacs of greater Phoenix to the exurban fringes of Northern Virginia have sold people on a lower cost of living. The decades of “drive-til-you-qualify” resulted in millions moving out for supposedly cheaper housing. Broadly speaking, we have been buying what they are selling. But was it actually more affordable?
New research from the Center for Neighborhood Technology, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, turns the conventional wisdom about affordable housing on its head. Rather than considering solely housing prices as a measure of affordability, CNT computed a formula that factors in transportation costs, yielding a very different portrait of affordability. They redefine true affordability as less than 45 percent of income for housing and transportation costs combined. (Typical affordability falls around 30 percent or less of income.) By this expanded measure, 48,000 communities deemed affordable by conventional metrics are actually unaffordable. The percentage of affordable communities drops from almost 70 percent by traditional measurements to just below 40 percent.
This release expands CNT’s previous work on this tool from just the biggest 52 metro areas to 337 metropolitan statistical areas across the U.S. So what does “location efficiency” mean?
While the concept of energy efficiency is a familiar term, locations can be efficient too. Compact neighborhoods with walkable streets, access to transit, and a wide variety of stores and services have high location efficiency. They require less time, money, and greenhouse gas emissions for residents to meet their everyday travel requirements.
The contrast between two communities – the Mt. Washington neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the Southern California suburb of Palmdale – provides a telling snapshot of affordability and “location efficiency.”
In Mt. Washington, perched above downtown Pittsburgh across the river, residents enjoy walkable streets, ample open space, a vibrant business district and close proximity to schools. Transit ridership is above average for the region, with 23 percent of workers using transit for the daily commute, and residents spend an average of $474 a month on transportation. The average combined housing and transportation cost, according to CNT’s formula, was 39 percent of income. In low-density Palmdale, the fastest growing city in Los Angeles County in 2009 but miles from the heart of L.A., only 4 percent of workers use public transportation for their daily commute and average transportation costs per month are nearly $900. According to CNT’s formula, average housing and transportation costs require 54 percent of income.
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| Palmdale, California, left, and Mt. Washington pictured with the blue areas showing places where housing + transportation costs total more than 45%. Screenshots from CNT. |
Penny-wise and pound-foolish (or pound-fuelish) is how the report’s describes many Americans’ approach to affordability. So how can we increase people’s options, raise awareness of hidden transportation costs and encourage a broader view perspective on affordable housing?
CNT has three suggestions.
First, transportation costs should be as transparent as possible. A bill sponsored by Congressman Earl Blumenauer would do just that by requiring transportation costs to be disclosed in real estate transactions.
Second, future policies and investments in transportation should measure true affordability with this new yardstick. The Livable Communities Act, sponsored by Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, would move us in that direction.
And third, federal transportation law ought to provide more funding and incentives to increase transportation options and greater proximity between housing, transit and jobs. These changes must be included in the next reauthorization of the transportation bill, which Congress just extended to the end of 2010.
With low-income and impoverished residents increasingly concentrating outside of central cities in areas where transportation costs are much higher, we need to invest in the kinds of transportation options that will keep them from getting stranded when gas prices go up.
The good news is that many public officials get it. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has expressed his desire to broaden the criteria for transportation projects, and a new partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency, DOT and Housing and Urban Development is included in President Obama’s 2011 budget. As Elana Schor said on Streetsblog this morning, this data is “aimed at encouraging the Obama administration to update its measurement of affordability, a goal embraced by the heads of the three agencies participating in the inter-agency sustainability work.”
Ron Sims, deputy secretary at HUD, said the Center’s report “demands that we address the issue of transportation costs and the built environment so people can make a better decision about where they live and what they can afford.”
We echo that demand.
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- House committee ignores broad opposition, decimates transit funding anyway
February 3, 2012 - Massive letter opposing House leadership attack on transit sent to Capitol Hill
February 3, 2012 - House leadership making unprecedented assault on public transit
February 2, 2012 - House Ways and Means proposal to end guaranteed funding for public transportation undoes bipartisan agreement since Reagan
February 2, 2012 - Pedestrian deaths, blaming the victim: headphones edition
January 19, 2012
- House committee ignores broad opposition, decimates transit funding anyway
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