Today’s Headlines — 06/16/09
June 16, 2009By Andrew Bielak
- The Baltimore Sun editorial board calls for a fresh start for our transportation system.
- Train executives see the link between climate change, energy, and transportation. (CNN)
- Zipcar founder Robin Chase speaks about ride sharing, transportation costs, and infrastructure. (Infrastructurist)
- A look at the worst cities for angry drivers. (Reuters)
Breaking Down the Blueprint: Energy Efficiency and Energy Security, Pt. 2
June 5, 2009By Andrew Bielak
| The T4 America Blueprint has six overarching national objectives to provide a new vision and guide our federal transportation policy. If our transportation system is in need of a clear purpose, these six objectives are like the rudder that will steer the ship. To ensure that we can meet these objectives and measure our progress, we created 10 performance targets — clear, quantifiable goals for the next 20 years that are tied directly to the six national objectives. |
In our previous post breaking down the T4 America Blueprint, we discussed our national objective of creating an energy efficient transportation system that boosts our economy and helps America use less oil. Today, we’re going to look at this issue from a slightly different angle, by explaining how we plan to achieve this goal — and measure our success — through strong, accountable reforms.
It may seem obvious that our federal transportation program should encourage less fuel use. Unfortunately, our existing policies do the exact opposite.
Instead of giving Americans options like public transportation, high-speed rail, and walking and biking, federal policy still has a heavy bias towards new road construction, promoting more driving — even as Americans continue to drive less and use transit in record numbers. And while research shows that transferring even a moderate portion of our goods movement from trucks to rail would have a huge impact on our overall fuel use (not to mention congestion), recent federal transportation bills have done nothing to incentivize this smart and essential shift in our freight policy.
To jumpstart the needed transition to an energy-efficient transportation system and a secure economy, Transportation for America has created a road map to reform that includes strong, clear policies and programs that we recommend Congress adopt in the next transportation bill. Continue reading below the fold to learn more about some of the specific policies and programs we’re proposing to lead this transition:
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Breaking Down the Blueprint: Energy Efficiency and Energy Security
June 3, 2009By Andrew Bielak
| The T4 America Blueprint has six overarching national objectives to provide a new vision and guide our federal transportation policy. If our transportation system is in need of a clear purpose, these six objectives are like the rudder that will steer the ship. To ensure that we can meet these objectives and measure our progress, we created 10 performance targets — clear, quantifiable goals for the next 20 years that are tied directly to the six national objectives. |
In November 2008, President Obama described America’s dependence on oil as resembling a “shock and trance” cycle. Our growing demand for foreign oil, he said, creates skyrocketing energy prices, leading to dramatic calls for energy independence and sudden cutbacks in our consumption that quickly dissipate once the price of oil drops — beginning the cycle all over again.
Transportation for America believes that the push to make our country less dependent on oil begins with a smarter, cleaner transportation system, and for this reason we’ve made one our top national transportation objectives to promote energy efficiency and achieve energy security.
While we’ll talk later this week about the programs in our Blueprint that help us reduce our dependence on oil, we wanted to explain today why we have this national objective, why our transportation system has such deep effects on our country’s energy consumption, and what performance targets are linked to this goal. As you’ll recall from the previous posts in this series, our 10 performance targets are measurable goals that will help us ensure that we achieve our objectives. While nearly all of these performance targets are important to create a more energy-secure economy, we are including two here that are particularly critical as we look towards this goal:
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Webinar wrap: Transportation, energy and climate change
April 3, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
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| Download the second in a series of policy briefs from T4: Transportation and Climate Change: A Critical Linkage (pdf) |
Nearly 150 transportation practitioners, environmental advocates, and green energy supporters signed up for our second webinar yesterday, focusing on Transportation and the Environment.
Transportation is the second largest and fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to producing many other benefits, public transportation, rail, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure already help reduce greenhouse gas pollution by millions of CO2 tons each day.
Transportation for America held this online discussion to explore how building the second half of our transportation system and reforming our local, state and federal transportation policies can help conserve oil and contribute to meeting the nation’s energy goals.
Deron Lovaas, Federal Transportation Policy Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, moderated the discussion and provided an overview of the greenhouse gas reductions possible from the transportation sector and the potential benefits of a U.S. cap-and-trade system.
John Holtzclaw, of the Sierra Club’s 21st Century Transportation Committee, discussed the costs of sprawl versus the benefis of compact, walkable develoment patterns. Joshua Saks, with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation presented an overview of the impacts of transportation on water quality. Finally, Michael Replogle, Transportation Director for the Living Cities Program at the Environmental Defense Fund, discussed the impacts of the transportation system on climate change and opportunities to ensure a low-carbon transportation system is possible in the future.
For those of you who attended the session, check out the Transportation for America Policy Brief on the issue and view a transcript of the presenters’ responses to your questions. This policy brief (available for download now), Transportation and Climate: A Critical Linkage, covers three basic ideas:
- The transportation system no longer supports the American Dream – a dream of livable communities free from pollution with less time spent in traffic, less oil use, and less global warming.
- Poorly planned transportation spending out of step with local needs has restructured America’s landscape and put enormous pressure on our natural resources
- While federal legislation has done much to mitigate environmental degradation, the benefits of these efforts — especially in air quality and water quality — are gradually being overtaken by growth in motor vehicle traffic and urban sprawl.
Download it now and feel free to pass it along to friends and colleagues. And be sure to join Transportation for America to help us tell Congress that smarter transportation investments should be part of any climate solution.
Webinar resources:
- Audio and video recording of the entire webinar (click to launch in a new window)
- A summary of the questions asked and responses (pdf)
- T4 Policy Brief on Transportation, Climate and Energy (pdf)
- Register for more upcoming webinars
Ending a Vicious Cycle
December 1, 2008By Andrew Bielak
In an interview last month, President-elect Barack Obama described America’s addiction to oil as a ‘shock and trance‘ cycle, in which increasing oil consumption creates skyrocketing energy prices, leading to calls to for bold solutions and energy independence — that is, until prices temporarily drop and our political leaders conveniently avoid tough issues like energy security and climate change.
After oil prices hovered at record levels throughout the summer, it’s not altogether surprising that as the price of oil has plummeted alongside our economy, some are looking for new excuses to avoid our most pressing global issues. For influential players in this debate, it’s an easy time to argue that an economic recessions give us little leverage to create bold alternative energy plans or fight climate change with investment in new technologies.
As president Obama indicated, we have to break down the illogical notion that our efforts on energy security and climate change should come to a halt in order to rebuild our economy. Fortunately, the most obvious answer here is also the simplest: We can do both.
Policy insiders, political pundits, and top administration members have all argued that making the right investments in modern, green infrastructure — repaired highways and bridges, expanded mass transit capacity, new bicycle and pedestrians paths, improved freight and passenger rail –- would support millions of sustainable jobs and help us transition to a more sustainable, energy independent, 21st-century economy. If we can absorb that lesson, we might be able get something big done with an economic recovery package next year — and help kill our ’shock and trance’ mentality for good.
Talking points of no return
October 16, 2008By Andrew Bielak
In their third and final presidential debate, Barack Obama and John McCain batted their plans back and forth on environmental issues like oil dependence and climate change, but didn’t offer too many new ideas. (Grist — Kate Sheppard)
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- U.S. Transportation Department makes good on promise to ensure our streets are made safer
March 16, 2010 - Obama’s livability programs help rural America too
March 16, 2010 - Transit grants out the federal door, but what about the cuts?
March 8, 2010 - Transit riders in Atlanta face massive cuts, “wholesale restructuring” of service
March 5, 2010 - Opposition to Senate extension results in looming shutdown of federal transportation programs
February 26, 2010
- U.S. Transportation Department makes good on promise to ensure our streets are made safer
The United States of Transit Cutbacks
Driving is down and transit ridership is at record highs. Yet transit agencies across the country are considering layoffs, service cuts and fare hikes. Find out more and learn what you can do to help at t4america.org/transitcuts
Transportation: In your eyes
Send us your transportation-related photos.
