SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
highways
To Curb Climate Pollution, We Must Address the Elephant in the Room: Transportation
We need to raise our voices together to demand our leaders fully fund transit, biking, and walking instead of expanding highways.
Apr 28, 2024
In cities and in rural areas, in red states and blue states, most residents want cleaner and more connected communities. Public transit—including trains, buses, and dial-a-ride services—and accessible walking and bike routes give us healthy, clean, and affordable ways for everyone to get where they need to go.
But for too long, policymakers have sold us the false choice that we must fund highways above all else. They continue to waste billions of our tax dollars on highway expansion projects that pollute our air and increase traffic, instead of funding sidewalks, safe biking routes, and robust public transportation options. This has resulted in a system where most people must drive for every trip to meet their daily needs.
The good news is that a shift in transportation funding priorities will not only clean our air, it will also improve our lives in nearly every dimension.
It doesn’t have to be this way. This spring’s Earth Day celebrations gave us the opportunity to step back, imagine our future, and commit to the changes that get us there. And to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stave off the worst effects of climate change, we must address the elephant in the room: transportation.
The transportation sector is the largest source of U.S. climate pollution—and 80% of transportation emissions come from the cars and trucks on our roads. It’s one of the only major sectors where emissions are still rising.
The good news is that a shift in transportation funding priorities will not only clean our air, it will also improve our lives in nearly every dimension. A new analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that by funding real transportation choices and reducing the amount we need to drive, we can create healthier, more connected communities while reducing harmful emissions.
If we expanded transportation options and reduced the miles that people need to drive by 30% by 2050, that would free up a lot of money in our wallets to spend on the things we need. On average, each household would save more than $3,000 a year from reduced fuel, maintenance, and depreciation costs for their vehicles. If better transportation choices allowed families to go from owning two cars to one, it would save them $12,000 per year!
And it would clean our air by reducing harmful emissions—by up to 3,100 megatons of greenhouse gasses. That’s the same as preventing emissions from almost 8,000 natural gas-fired plants.
The tide is starting to turn. Recently, federal legislation was introduced to provide more operational funds to transit. This would help many transit agencies across the country that are facing fiscal shortfalls invest in more services, run more routes, and increase the frequency of trains and buses. The bill, the “Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act” introduced by Congressman Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), already has more than 100 co-sponsors.
And this momentum cannot come fast enough. The reality is the climate crisis isn’t coming—it’s here. We see it around us everyday. From record heat to stronger storms, it impacts everything from our economy to our national security.
And we need to act now.
We need to raise our voices together to demand our leaders fully fund transit, biking, and walking instead of expanding highways. This will connect and improve our neighborhoods, have a positive economic impact, and protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we call home for generations to come.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Climate Time Bomb': Infrastructure Law Funds Highways Over Public Transit
"If we want to tackle congestion and the climate crisis, instead of offering platitudes, the next transportation bill needs to offer clean mobility options, like transit, car share, active modes, and electrification," said one analyst.
Feb 29, 2024
The law that the Biden administration has heralded as "a once-in-a-generation investment in America's infrastructure" that would help to "build a clean energy economy" has led to an explosion in state-level spending on highway expansion, leading one transportation advocacy group to project on Wednesday that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will result in more emissions from transport than if it hadn't passed.
The law, officially known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), gave state transportation officials discretion over how to spend money distributed by the $1.2 trillion package, but Transportation for America warned in a new analysis of 57,000 projects that the law has revealed itself to be a "climate time bomb," with more than half of the funds—about $70 billion—so far spent on resurfacing and expanding highways.
Only about $25 billion of the money dispersed to states has been spent on transit and passenger rail, even as Americans clamor for more public transportation options.
As Inequality.orgreported last week, a 2023 nationwide survey found that 71% of respondents believed the U.S. "should be shifting funding from highways to public transit," and 70% said such a shift would be better for people's "health, safety, and economy."
"Considering the billions of federal dollars already spent on highway expansion projects, it's going to take more than self-congratulation over the bill's historic funding to undo the environmental harms."
Just 18% said building more highways and highway lanes would reduce traffic, cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions—of which transportation is already the biggest source globally and in the United States.
Transportation for America found that unless states change course, highway expansions paid for by the IIJA will lead to more than 178 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and will be only slightly offset by emissions-reducing measures in the law.
"While the IIJA could have been a win for the environment, across the country, states have instead used this once-in-a-generation level of funding to expand roadways the same way they've been doing for years," wrote Corrigan Salerno, a policy associate for the group. "Considering the billions of federal dollars already spent on highway expansion projects, it's going to take more than self-congratulation over the bill's historic funding to undo the environmental harms."
The group noted that the Biden administration advised states to prioritize highway repairs over expansion, but states including Texas and California have forged ahead with plans to increase congested roads' capacity for more vehicles.
"So much of the decision making falls to state departments of transportation," Mary Buchanan, research and policy manager at TransitCenter toldThe Guardian. "There are essentially 50 opportunities to get this right, I guess, or to potentially get it wrong, in terms of how money is being spent."
The analysis was released a day after an Indiana state House committee approved a bill delaying implementation of dedicated bus lanes in Indianapolis to "study the transportation option," with Republicans in favor of the bill saying the state needs to have an "overall conversation about road funding."
One Democratic lawmaker who has advocated for more public transit options in the city "broke into tears," according to local public broadcasting affiliate WFYI, as he called the decision "really, really, really bad public policy."
Indianapolis residents had testified for months against the bill, WFYI reported.
Salerno called on the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress to "explore every means available" to reduce transportation emissions.
"Congress needs to get real—the largest and most growing sector of emissions is transportation," Salerno wrote. "If we want to tackle congestion and the climate crisis, instead of offering platitudes, the next transportation bill needs to offer clean mobility options, like transit, car share, active modes, and electrification—not just the same strategies that got us in this position in the first place."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular