Gregor defines the problem:
The problem the country faces right now is that we already invested in the wrong things. Wrong things have little sustainable payoff. We invested in Houses and Cars, and did so for decades. But houses and cars are really just tools that are supposed to set us up to do the larger work. In the United States the car and the home became economic fetishes. Alot of the country now lives in a home that’s too big, in a town too far from work. Continuing to invest in this structure is crazy, given that oil prices will be sky-high again in the near future. Politically, however, it will be difficult for the nation’s Governors to do otherwise, and therein lies a problem.
And the solutions:
The value proposition of commuter and light rail is so powerful, on so many different levels, that I cannot understand why it’s not in the Number One position in current discussions of the Obama plan. It should be above Carbon and Climate issues, Solar and Wind issues, vehicle standards issues, and certainly well above Road and Bridge issues. The only comparable investment theme I find in the proposed stimulus plan relates to the Grid. We will indeed need a new Grid to feed power from new sources of utility grade solar and wind, into electrified public rail transport.
In many ways, I think Obama’s hands are tied on this one as a result of timing more so than desire. I think we’ll see some more conventional “Road and Bridge” projects in the first year, and I can live with that. Fact is, we aren’t going to end our reliance on cars overnight, so maintenance and modest improvements on our existing infrastructure is a prudent move. And we desperately need to put people to work.
I expect to see more substantial big thinking projects in the following years. Changes to the Grid aren’t going to happen overnight, but they will happen in the next five to ten years, and must begin to lay that groundwork now. Light rail can make denser development more attractive, and once again make walking the principal form of transportation in older, more urban communities. Suburban sprawl is killing our cities, and our heavy reliance on the automobile is unsustainable, so we have no choice but to change the way we now live.