Transportation For America » “The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over”

“The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over”

February 10, 2009
By Stephen Lee Davis

UPDATED: Full transcript added to the bottom of this post. And this link to White House blog post added.

President Obama was back on the road today to garner support for the economic stimulus package that passed the Senate early Tuesday morning. He was speaking today at a town hall forum in Ft. Myers, Florida, and near the end of his hour-long session, a city councilwoman asked him about transportation and infrastructure in the stimulus.

Here’s how he responded:

It’s imagining new transportation systems. I’d like to see high speed rail where it can be constructed. I would like for us to invest in mass transit because potentially that’s energy efficient. And I think people are a lot more open now to thinking regionally…

The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody… recognizes that’s not a smart way to design communities. So we should be using this money to help spur this sort of innovative thinking when it comes to transportation.

That will make a big difference.

Watch the full session from C-SPAN here. The section begins at around the 55 minute mark. If we can track it down, check back with us later for a more detailed transcript.

One way to ensure that we’re not throwing stimulus money into something whose “days are over” would be to ensure that highway funding in the stimulus goes first to reduce the massive backlog of desperately needed maintenance and repair before building new roads and highways. Which would steer funding into projects that can be bid quickly, will create more jobs than new construction, and won’t come with the hidden cost of future maintenance like new construction does.

Another smart use of stimulus money would be making sure that the bill maintains the House’s funding level of $12 billion for public transportation.

Look back here in the next day or two for more detailed information on weighing in and taking action while the bill is in conference committee. We’ll have a full breakdown of the differences between the two bills and which areas in each version should be supported.

Click through to see the full transcript, albeit with possible inaccuracies until we get an official one. Thanks to Jay Blazek Crossley of Houston Tomorrow for sending it over.

Speaker: I am now an elected official myself. I serve on the City Council in ? Springs, Florida. My mayor is here as well.

Cities throughout Florida are having a difficult time because of the mortgage crisis. Growth has slowed. We fund our transportation infrastructure needs through impact fees. Now that we’re not getting that, we’re falling behind in our ability to keep up with road work, municipal water projects, being able to bring solar panels down here to an inland port. We need commuter rail. We need lots of things for infrastructure in this state. If we ran out of oil today, we would not be able to move in this state, to get around. And I hope that you turn that thing around in the Gulf, we don’t want to drill for oil in the Gulf. We’ve got a beautiful pristine state, so I am asking you, how will we get our state going again in transportation? I’m very worried about our dependence on foreign oil and I don’t want to drill in our Gulf. I want some commuter rail and I want to improve our transportation.

President Obama: Well, We have targeted billions of dollars at infrastructure spending and states all across the country are going through what Florida’s going through. there was a study done by the American Association of Engineers – that might not be the exact title, engineers from all across the country. We get a D for infrastructure all across the country.

We saw what happened in Minneapolis where a bridge collapsed and resulted in tragedy. Not only do we need to rebuild our roads, our bridges, our ports, our levies, our damns, but we also have to plan for the future. This is the same example of turning crisis into opportunity. This should be a wake up call for us. You go to Shanghai, China right now and they’ve got high speed rail that puts our rail to shame. They’ve got ports that are state of the art. Their airports are you know compared to the airports that we – you go through beijing airport and you compare that to miami airport?

Now, look, this is America. We always had the best infrastructure. We were always willing to invest in the future. Governor Crist mentioned Abraham Lincoln. In the middle of the Civil War, in the midst of all this danger and peril, what did he do? He helped move the intercontinental railroad. He helped start land grant colleges. He understood that even when you’re in the middle of crisis, you’ve got to keep your eye on the future. So transportation is not just fixing our old transportation systems but its also imaging new transportation systems.

That’s why I’d like to see high speed rail where it can be constructed. That’s why I would like to invest in mass transit because potentially that’s energy efficient and I think people are alot more open now to thinking regionally in terms of how we plan our transportation infrastructure. The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody recognizes that that’s not a smart way to build communities. So we should be using this money to help spur this kind of innovative thinking when it comes to transportation. That will make a big difference.

Filed under: Campaign Blog
Tags: featured, obama, sprawl, transit, transportation

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http://www.UrbanCincy.com/ Randy Simes

? Springs is probably Bonita Springs, FL. Bonita Springs is just south of Ft. Myers in Lee County and is right there in the thick of this mess.
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Steve Davis

Good to note, Randy. Thanks for the heads up. We should send her flowers for asking such a good question.
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Wells

US railway infrastructure is under-developed, that’s for sure, both Amtrak passenger rail and metropolitan area light rail. But, high-speed rail is not really necessary, especially not these 200mph electrified versions.

It would be nice if Amtrak increased service on many routes from one train a day to two. That would give many cities a choice of boarding time that isn’t at 3:am in the morning. Some closed Amtrak routes could reopen, like the Pioneer from Portland to Salt Lake City, or the Los Angeles to Las Vegas Gambler.

The more pressing need for rail service isn’t intra-city (Amtrak) as much as inner-city (light rail), to deal with the daily traffic nightmare experienced in every US city. Light rail has many more stations to direct infill development to lessen nearby residents need for long-distance commuting.

The electricity is needed for light rail, rather than electrified high-speed trains so fast they bypass small communities on their routes between big cities. The routes of long-distance trains are mostly rural where the environmental benefits of electrication are moot. Standard locomotives can reach a top speed of 135mph, fast enough and closer to the average speed of electrified high-speed trains anyway.
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http://www.vision42.org Roxanne Warren

I agree with Wells. Most urban trips are local and intra-regional, and would be beautifully served by light rail. Where these systems have been built (Charlotte, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, Phoenix, the Hudson Bergen Light Rail Line in NJ, etc.) they have been enormously successful in attracting mororists out of their cars, and in spurring new transit-oriented development. It also costs one-tenth as much as subway construction, and can be combined with auto-free streets in the centers of cities. High-speed rail is also a highly attractive alternative to air travel on triips up to say, 500 miles. However, the few billion dollars that are provided for it in the stimulous package are nowhere nearly enough to make a dent in the number of corridors contemplated for high-speed rail across the country.