Soaring Gas Prices Forcing Changes in Transportation Policy

Congress is getting the message that federal policy needs to create more options for transportation and housing choices that reduce dependence on driving.

Three bills being considered by Congress would expand transportation choices and reduce our dependence on oil. Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act (H.R. 6052) recently passed the House of Representatives; the Safe and Complete Streets Act (H.R. 5951); and the pending Transportation and Housing Choices for Gas Price Relief Act (H.R. 6495).

Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), Doris Matsui (D-California) and Chris Shays (R-Connecticut) addressed a briefing by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute July 17 on Capitol Hill. Panelists included: Chris Leinberger, partner at Arcadia Land Co. and visiting fellow at The Brookings Institution; Julie Pulidindi, transportation analyst, National League of Cities; Art Guzzetti, vice president for policy, American Public Transportation Association; and Barbara McCann, executive director, National Complete Streets Coalition.

Rep. Blumenauer said his bill (H.R. 6495) will "level the playing field" and "provide incentives for telecommuting." In addition the legislation will: provide the same fringe benefits for public transportation as parking; allow parking benefits to be cashed in for better usage; extend benefits to bike commuters; extend benefits to self-employed individuals; create tax credits for vanpool expenses and telecommuting.

Communities with public transit hold their value, Blumenauer said. He noted that California's housing prices have declined 20 to 30 percent, while Portland's prices have dropped just 1 percent.

"We have been married to our cars for a long time," Rep. Matsui joked. She introduced H.R. 5951 -- Safe and Complete Streets Act.  "What we see is a transportation challenge that has become a way to grow in a responsible way; time to embrace this and move forward." She said there's a role for the federal government.

Rep. Shays stressed the impact of transportation policies on the environment and infrastructure and said, it "doesn't make sense to encourage parking."

Yet, that is what has been done for the past 50 years. McCann pointed out that in metro areas almost half of trips are less than three miles and 28 percent are less than one mile. Of those trips under one mile, 65 percent use an auto. "You can make tremendous impact in these one mile short trips," she said. She cited WalkScore.com, which has rankings of 40 cities and 2,500 neighborhoods based on their walkability.

"Transit saves 4.2 billion gallons of gas annually, and saves consumers an average of $6,200 a year" Guzzetti of APTA stated.

Congressman Jim Moran (D-Virginia), standing in the back of the room, was asked to comment. He said Arlington is what it has to be about if our economy is going to grow. (Arlington has developed along its Metro line and created walkable neighborhoods.) Moran acknowledged that Arlington is also trying to bring back streetcars.

"Transportation drives development," Leinberger noted. There's a tremendous private sector benefit in the built environment. For example, $70 trillion of the country's wealth is in real estate; the largest asset class in the entire economy. On the down side, the built environment uses 70 percent of all energy and emits 73 percent of CO2 gases. Federal policies following World War II created low density development patterns and this model worked until the mid-1990s. "Ninety-five percent of zoning mandates low density development," he stated.

But, Leinberger emphasized the market now wants something different. There are tremendous price premiums for walkable urban development; 40 to 200 percent increase in price per square foot over suburban product, he said. "For example, the District sold two acres by the baseball stadium that five years ago would have sold at $10 per square foot; it sold two weeks ago at $712 per square foot to two developers. An increase of 70 percent; that's the power of TOD," he stressed. "We need to capture that to help pay for the transit." He said the 10,000 dead or dying strip malls provide space to redevelop. The McMansions on the fringe are obsolete as energy costs will continue to increase. Moving from the suburbs to walkable urban locations will cut consumption of energy and CO2 by 75 percent, Leinberger said and predicted that hundreds of these walkable urban places will be built.

Transit-oriented development provides an opportunity for public/private partnerships, Leinberger suggested. The transportation system is broken and there is little public money available; we need to leverage with private money. And, he added that transportation planning needs to be done at the metropolitan level and must be mode neutral.

Several other innovative solutions were offered by Pulidindi of the National League of Cities, including: shortening the work week and reducing public vehicles on roads. Policy recommendations include:

Increasing the index of the gas tax to support infrastructure needs;

Encouraging use of innovative financing mechanisms;

Creating appropriate scale for all roads;

Creating accessible transportation;

Increasing support for all transit;

And, she suggested it is necessary to change how we develop transportation policy.

Leinberger said that Brookings is doing research to demonstrate the price increase of single-family housing by being close to walkable urban development. He suggested it is between 20 to 50 percent.

Comments

[Jorbidok]

interesting, i'll be back later