Transforming our Transportation System
Remarks by Judith Rodin
National Governors Association Panel Discussion
Hosted by Building America’s Future
National Press Club, Washington, D.C
Good morning and welcome. I’m Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, and I’m pleased to introduce today’s session.
I think it’s clear that we meet at a tipping point: Right on the verge of a potential transformation in how the United States plans, finances, and builds its transportation infrastructure. Eighteen months ago, Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Rendell, Governor Schwarzenegger, and I stood under a Los Angeles overpass to launch Building America’s Future. On that January day, even the most optimistic of advocates would have been hard pressed to imagine that we’d come so far, so fast.
As we get today’s discussion started, it’s important to remember exactly why we set out on this journey. You know the story: During the last half-century, United States transportation policy and funding has primarily focused on highway construction, with a special emphasis on interstates. Our roadways were crucial to economic growth. They moved products of industry to market, connected millions of families with well-paying jobs, established and affirmed Americans’ enduring conviction that a better future was only – and always– just down the road.
And yet, our roadways also led to a host of unanticipated consequences. The same systems that supported tremendous growth for generations now undermine it. As bridges crumble and congestion thickens, we’ve clearly crashed into the limits of 20th century thinking. Today, we need to draft a new blueprint for our systems and structures of transportation because the world has dramatically changed.
For one thing, Americans’ overreliance on automobiles dramatically worsens the build-up of atmospheric greenhouse gasses that are warming our world. As many of you know, the transportation sector accounts for two-thirds of the United States’ oil use while producing one-third of the nation’s – and one-twelfth of the world’s – carbon emissions. That’s why we must increase use of renewable and low-carbon fuels, improve automotive technology, and – importantly – reduce VMT, the number of miles Americans travel by car.
Regarding this last ingredient of the recipe, the Center for Clean Air Policy just released a report on cost-effective climate change mitigation. It shows that a suite of “best practices” for smart growth, transportation-choice, and pricing could reduce VMT by 10 percent per capita. In terms of carbon emissions, this would be equivalent to taking 30 million cars off the road – or 35 large coal plants offline – every single year.
Next month, a consortium of unlikely allies will release a seminal new analysis, dubbed “Moving Cooler.” This path breaking study – supported by several of us here, in addition to the Urban Land Institute, Shell Oil, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and AASHTO – will inform policy choices and funding decisions about transportation and land-use by evaluating 50 different transportation-related interventions, individually and in bundles, and then calculating greenhouse gas reductions across three different implementation scenarios.
In addition addressing to the challenges of a changing climate, we must stay mindful that transportation places a great financial burden on America’s workers, especially during the current downturn. In fact, for households earning between $20,000 and $50,000 annually, transportation costs can equal or exceed those of housing. The Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology recently released a study demonstrating that all 337 metropolitan regions in the United States exhibit what one might call "drive 'til you qualify" land-use and market value patterns. In other words, because housing costs drop so significantly between eight and 15 miles from city centers, working people drive further and further until they find homes they can afford, often settling in locations without transit options. This is often counterproductive. Because car costs are somewhere in the neighborhood of $7,000 a year, the expenses of transportation often wipe out the savings of cheaper housing.
Finally, our current transportation patterns come with critical health implications. According to the front page of this morning’s USA TODAY, in 2002, “2.2 million Americans lived in neighborhoods where air pollution caused an excess cancer risk greater than 100 in 1 million, a level the EPA considers unacceptable.” Where is the greatest risk, you might ask. “The worst single neighborhood lay between two freeways in Cerritos, California, outside Los Angeles.”
This is the moment to solve these challenges. We can build a smarter road forward for America. We can build 21st century infrastructure and a 21st century workforce at the same time. We can create tens of thousands of jobs. We can develop clean, reliable, renewable, energy supplies that do less damage to our environment. We can reject the choice between public or private financing as false. We can meet – and are already meeting – emerging challenges with innovative solutions.
On the federal level, policymakers have begun to lay the foundation for sustainable, long-term growth in the economic recovery package, providing substantial funding for high speed rail lines, municipal rapid and mass transit systems, and rural broadband that reduces consumers’ need to drive.
But progress has been long underway, at the local level, especially in laboratories of reform like Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s New York City. In 2007, Mayor Bloomberg launched PlaNYC, which deploys more than 130 initiatives to make New York one of the best-managed cities in the world. We’ve all marveled at the mayor’s work promoting mixed-use, mixed-income development, walk-able, bike-able streets, express bus service into Manhattan from the outer boroughs, and setting the standard for how urban areas can cope with the imminent, worsening, and very local impacts of global climate disruption.
My colleagues and I are privileged to travel and meet with urban leaders around the world. So, it is our informed belief that no mayor – anywhere – inspires and implements more creative solutions. There’s never been a more crucial moment for his intrepid leadership. Please join me in welcoming New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
