Why Is America's Transportation System Stuck in the 1950s?

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Why Is America's Transportation System Stuck in the 1950s?

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Started 3 months ago by Walker
Latest reply from columbusmike

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Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Why Is America's Transportation System Stuck in the 1950s?
SARAH LASKOW
February 1, 2012 • 11:00 am

The House of Representatives is starting work on the next big transportation bill this week, unveiling the proposed text Tuesday and marking it up today. For anyone interested in getting around without a car, the legislation holds nothing but bad news. It zeroes out funding for biking and walking infrastructure and cuts Amtrak’s budget by 25 percent, while lavishing care on cars and the highways that carry them using revenues from increased gas and oil drilling. The only silver lining is that it does not cut funding for mass transit.

READ MORE: http://www.good.is/post/why-is-our-transportation-system-stuck-in-the-1950s/

Posted 3 months ago #
columbusmike

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I think a lot of us in the pro-mass transit community need to realize we need good roads as much as we need good mass transit. Cars and buses, in one form or another, are going to be around for a long time. We should be looking at ways that reduce our cost in maintenance, acknowledge other forms (walking, biking, etc), and beautify and protect our rural and urban environments, while providing safety and ease of movement.

There are lots of "smart" streets around the world we can learn from. For instance, there is a city in Europe that eliminated all of their road signs and stripes. They saw a decrease in traffic accidents.

Posted 3 months ago #
jpizzow
580 N. Park St.
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$5+ a gallon of gas will change the culture. It's coming.

Posted 3 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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@ColumbusMike - I certainly agree. Allowing our road system to continue to deteriorate would be a complete disaster. We need to maintain and improve our existing infrastructure.

I think it's a good move for ODOT to delay *new* projects that it can't afford, but hopefully can continue to fund maintenance where it is most needed.

Meanwhile, innovative solutions to transportation are greatly needed both locally in Columbus and regionally throughout the state. Ohio won't thrive if we do the bare minimum. World class cities have world class infrastructure. We should make transit investments that will drive development.

Posted 3 months ago #
GCrites80s
5xNW
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There's a lot of people that wish it still was the '50s and early '60s that have political clout. Listen, I dig the '80s a lot, but it had its problems too. People have to learn to move on in response to what is happening in the world today. I think a lot of these people can't stand the idea of things being different than they were 60 years ago. And actually, back then we still had passenger rail service.

Posted 3 months ago #
BuckeyeShadow
Behind that Buckeye Tree
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America's transportation system is stuck in the 1950s because the collective mindset of our power structure--and the people in it-is stuck in the 1950s.

Think about it. The nation is currently run by Baby Boomers, who in general have been a conservative generation as adults. Not necessarily conservative in the political sense--though they were the driving force behind the "Reagan Revolution"-but conservative in the sense of being utterly conventional in their preference of aesthetics and structures for daily living.

The suburban world of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver is what they lived and idealized while growing up. In the Post WWII 1950s, the suburb was the future, the car was the ultimate symbol of status, sex and freedom and the city was in its rear view mirror. Metro rail was being ripped up and replaced with four lane highways to service all of the new developments of little boxes made of ticky-tacky that were sprouting up on farmland.

When the Boomers themselves became more established as adults, they put the suburban dream into overdrive from the early 1990s through 2007.

The push, particularly among the younger generations now for rail, urban life and living options and high-density mixed use development is falling on deaf ears because what they want isn't what the Boomer "powers that be" want. Our leaders have little concept of these things as being good and desirable. Even worse, they may view them as a threat to the "American Dream" and way of life that they grew up with and still believe in, as they see it (This explains Kasich's governorship in a nutshell).

The solution? A generational shift in the halls of power and policy. It's actually happening now, but many of those in favor of maintaining the status quo will not go quietly. Public outrage at pump prices above $5.00 a gallon might help them along.

Posted 3 months ago #
cheap
Westgate
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BuckeyeShadow said:
The push, particularly among the younger generations now for rail, urban life and living options and high-density mixed use development is falling on deaf ears because what they want isn't what the Boomer "powers that be" want.

the Boomer "powers that be" will start listening to urbanites once they realize how much money is being made in the urban areas.

all you have to do is show them the money

Posted 3 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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A related question-formatted headline:

-----------

Why Does Our Infrastructure Resemble a Third World Country’s?
BY: ALEX MARSHALL | FEBRUARY 2012

Take a look around your community and I bet you’ll see pothole-filled roads, rusting bridges and decaying train stations. It is rare, rather than the rule, to see unblemished asphalt, gleaming railings and bright platforms. Yet we are, by all estimates, one of the richest societies in the world. What gives?

READ MORE: http://www.governing.com/columns/eco-engines/gov-why-does-our-infrastructure-resemble-third-world.html

Posted 3 months ago #
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
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One would think that a "conservative generation" would be interested in conserving things. Things like land, oil, lives.

Posted 3 months ago #
bman
New Albany
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BuckeyeShadow said:
America's transportation system is stuck in the 1950s because the collective mindset of our power structure--and the people in it-is stuck in the 1950s.

Think about it. The nation is currently run by Baby Boomers, who in general have been a conservative generation as adults. Not necessarily conservative in the political sense--though they were the driving force behind the "Reagan Revolution"-but conservative in the sense of being utterly conventional in their preference of aesthetics and structures for daily living.

The suburban world of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver is what they lived and idealized while growing up. In the Post WWII 1950s, the suburb was the future, the car was the ultimate symbol of status, sex and freedom and the city was in its rear view mirror. Metro rail was being ripped up and replaced with four lane highways to service all of the new developments of little boxes made of ticky-tacky that were sprouting up on farmland.

When the Boomers themselves became more established as adults, they put the suburban dream into overdrive from the early 1990s through 2007.

The push, particularly among the younger generations now for rail, urban life and living options and high-density mixed use development is falling on deaf ears because what they want isn't what the Boomer "powers that be" want. Our leaders have little concept of these things as being good and desirable. Even worse, they may view them as a threat to the "American Dream" and way of life that they grew up with and still believe in, as they see it (This explains Kasich's governorship in a nutshell).

The solution? A generational shift in the halls of power and policy. It's actually happening now, but many of those in favor of maintaining the status quo will not go quietly. Public outrage at pump prices above $5.00 a gallon might help them along.

you folks should collect signatures and put this on the ballot let the people speak.

Posted 3 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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bman said:
you folks should collect signatures and put this on the ballot let the people speak.

Yeah! Just like how highway development gets voted on.

Posted 3 months ago #
CalebR
Lincoln Village
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More light rail :P

Posted 3 months ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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Freeways were invented by Hitler.

SLAMS BELL

Posted 3 months ago #
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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It looks like crunch time is coming :

CBO Reports Highway Trust Fund Headed to Bankruptcy

A.

Posted 3 months ago #
shadytree
clintonville
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Many Americans view bike lanes and urban living as a vast conspiracy for a NEW WORLD ORDER OH MAH GAAWWWDDD.

http://www.teaparty911.com/issues/sustainable_development_agenda_21.htm

Posted 3 months ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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shadytree said:
Many Americans view bike lanes and urban living as a vast conspiracy for a NEW WORLD ORDER OH MAH GAAWWWDDD.

http://www.teaparty911.com/issues/sustainable_development_agenda_21.htm

Funny that the same people who are yelling the loudest for "free market" don't want choices in transportation. As much as they claim changes in policy "coerce" and force people from cars, isn't the exclusion or lack of funding forcing and coercing people to choose a specific mode? It's like the religious nuts who claim a war on Christmas...then turn around and want to exclude every other religion that doesn't fit their mold.

I can't speak for everyone but if a business tried to sell me on an investment in their company and their entire business model was making only one product, with serious questions regarding long term sales/profit, I'd pretty much tell them where to shove it.

Posted 3 months ago #
bman
New Albany
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lifeontwowheels said:
Funny that the same people who are yelling the loudest for "free market" don't want choices in transportation. As much as they claim changes in policy "coerce" and force people from cars, isn't the exclusion or lack of funding forcing and coercing people to choose a specific mode? It's like the religious nuts who claim a war on Christmas...then turn around and want to exclude every other religion that doesn't fit their mold.

I can't speak for everyone but if a business tried to sell me on an investment in their company and their entire business model was making only one product, with serious questions regarding long term sales/profit, I'd pretty much tell them where to shove it.

Free Market does not mean choice ... Free Market means the market (votes) determine shit! Right now, I will go out on a limb and say an overwhelming majority of voters in Ohio do not support spending money on a rail system. Those are just facts people.

Posted 3 months ago #
bman
New Albany
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In another choo choo thread I said I would support voting on large new road construction projects ... so pound it!

Posted 3 months ago #
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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bman said:
Free Market does not mean choice ... Free Market means the market (votes) determine shit! Right now, I will go out on a limb and say an overwhelming majority of voters in Ohio do not support spending money on a rail system. Those are just facts people.

Not really. A free market means that goods are allocated according to demand (paying,) not votes (which are free.) In a free market, if 51% of people wanted roads and 49% wanted rail, that is what we would get. In politics, 51-49% usually equates to 100%-0. The end result is that people have choices because it is rare (to non-existent) that allocations end up 100-0. I like markets as they tend to get more people what they want which I think is the optimal outcome.

Ironically, much of the origins of mass transit was a result of free enterprise whereas the transition to roads was from government programs like the Interstate Highway.

A.

Posted 3 months ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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bman said:
Free Market does not mean choice ... Free Market means the market (votes) determine shit! Right now, I will go out on a limb and say an overwhelming majority of voters in Ohio do not support spending money on a rail system. Those are just facts people.

Care to quote your source of facts? I'll happily link you back to the poll that showed a majority of Ohioans supporting 3C when it was under consideration.

Posted 3 months ago #