It's Time to Shift the Balance

Co-Directors, Ron Carley and Jill Fuglister crafted the following response to the Portland Tribune's recent criticisms of Metro's Regional Transportation Plan Update.

Someone once said the “definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.  One look at the ever-expanding and increasingly congested highway systems of, for example, Los Angeles or Atlanta begs the question of the sanity of transportation planners for those regions.  The fact is that building highways to reduce congestion is equivalent to buying a larger belt to cure obesity!  By contrast, we should applaud the “sanity” of the approach that Metro has proposed in its draft Regional Transportation Plan for dealing with our region’s transportation needs.

Today it is clear that a new model for transportation must emerge if we are to save ourselves, our communities and our planet. Indicators include: Our ghastly obesity epidemic, which is caused in large part by our sedentary lives. We’ve built our communities in ways that make it difficult and often, impossible, to walk, bike or get around our communities without a car, and as a result we are making ourselves sick. The costs are staggering. Not only are we spending 1.5% of ALL dollars in our country on diabetes, just one of obesity’s diseases, but today’s generation of children will be the first to live fewer years than their parents due to this epidemic. Then there is global warming, and the incredible threat it poses to our economy, environment and health. Even if we were to start to enact the most aggressive climate change standards today, we would still see enormous impacts on our economy and communities. And these are just two of the many transportation challenges with which we must contend.

And while the Federal Highway Administration, Oregon Transportation Commissioners and some business leaders may not be ready to face this reality as indicated by their critiques of Metro’s draft Regional Transportation Plan, citizens completely get it. Between October and January, we reached over 700 residents of Clackamas, Clark, Multnomah and Washington Counties with a questionnaire about the future direction for transportation in our region, and these folks are ready for change.

Here are a few highlights:

·   Of the 700 people surveyed, 87% expressed that their top transportation concern today and in 10 years is environmental impacts. Health and safety as well as loss of community were tied for second.

·   Overwhelmingly, respondents preferred transportation investments that aim to maintain and improve infrastructure in existing communities rather than building transportation outside the Urban Growth Boundary.

·   Over sixty percent of respondents thought that reducing the amount of land dedicated to transportation is a great or good idea. And there was strong support for numerous strategies that would better connect land use and transportation.

·   People’s favorite idea to make the current system fairer: Change the gas tax so that it can fund all modes.

The consensus: be efficient, protect the environment, make our communities work better and give us choice. The clear message is that citizens are ready for big change. The Regional Transportation Plan Update currently underway is our opportunity to map that change and start shifting the balance of our transportation system away from a system that serves cars, toward a system that will serve people. This is the transportation system we need for the 21st century system.

Read more about CLF's Shift the Balance Campaign.