PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 23, 2021
With the House and Senate advancing bills to fund federal surface transportation programs for the next five years it a great time to reflect on the social and environmental impacts of our transportation policy. For decades, the federal government has spent 80% of transportation infrastructure funds on highways, with only 20% left for public transit. Our government’s 80-20 policy is subsidizing sprawl and traffic, even as traffic deaths and pollution keep rising. Meanwhile, it underfunds mass transit, passenger rail and pedestrian and bicycle safety. We need a freeze on all highway expansion, except under the rarest circumstances (e.g., expanding evacuation routes). We should be investing in pedestrian and bicycle safety infrastructure and repairing structurally unsound bridges. We should stop subsidizing sprawl and spend those savings on our resource-starved mass transit systems. ~ Basav Sen, Climate Policy Program, Institute for Policy Studies