More roads? Easy Action!

The article "Going Green? Easy Doesn't Do It" essentially argues that simple or easy changes to our lives (for the purpose of reducing environmental impact) is not enough to stop the exploitation of our resources and sinks. Maniates argues that we need collective serious action. He wants our environmental agencies, governments, and lobbing organizations to ask more of our society than replacing light bulbs. Greater action is clearly required. Individuals should make greater sacrifices to reduce their environmental impact. The problem that I see here though is a lack of 1, motivation, but also 2, ability to make these types of changes.

How many cities are there in the United States where individuals do not need a car for transportation? Certainly you need a car in LA, Las Vegas, Denver, Cleveland, Huston, ect... I see there being three to six cities where you do not need a car for your major form of transportation: Washington DC, New York, Boston, and possibly, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Chicago. In my mind this country can make no significant impact to reduce our path of environmental destruction until we give up our love affair with the automobile. This is clearly impossible if there are no other viable transit options.

President Obama on September 6th announced a $50 Billion plan to modernize and expand our transportation systems. According to an article in BuisnessWeek, "Obama wants Congress to approve spending to rebuild 150,000 miles of road, construct and maintain 4,000 miles of railroad, and refurbish 150 miles of runways." Does it seem like there is something wrong with this ratio to you? This is clearly not a path that will lead us to a reduced environmental impact as a nation. Yes a decent portion of the 4,000 miles of railroad is high speed rail which will reduce some of the commuter flights. However, this is not nearly good enough. This proposal from a man I would consider to be politically left and environmentally minded still is clearly focusing on road systems. With almost 4 times the miles of roadways as railways we will not be reducing our carbon footprint. In fact this seems like the easy way out that Maniates warned against. Perhaps then if we need collective serious action, as Maniates argues, then we should all fight for the creation of viable, efficient, and green public transit systems in all of our major metropolitan areas.