Happy Earth Day. Oppose all Highway Expansions

[wawa]

I'd like to take this earth day, inspired by the news about the record of decision on the NEPA study for a new span of the Bay Bridge (the maryland one, not SF) - to say in no uncertain terms that any project that is creating new highway capacity dedicated to personal vehicles is hastening our eventual doom!  

yay! 

Any study that starts with an assumption that traffic volumes will continue to grow in a linear (or any other) fashion for the next 20 years is assuming that we will UTTERLY FAIL to control climate change in any meaningful way, and the money to be spent on the highway expansions that those studies demand should instead be redirected to emergency climate response funds and TRANSIT.  Also electrification is not enough if VMT continues to climb as it has been.

Please avail yourselves of public comment and voting opportunities to help stop these things from happening, and support transit expansions, transit funding, active transportation projects and transit oriented development in those places lucky enough to already have high quality transit available.

Have a nice day.  Ride the bus, walk or bike somewhere! Thanks!

References:
Climate Report:
www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/

Induced Travel Demand:
www.vtpi.org/gentraf.pdf

Electric Vehicles are Awesome But Not Enough:
www.scientificamerican.com/article/electric-vehicle-adoption-not-happening-fast-enough-to-meet-climate-goals/

t4america.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/T4A-Climate-3-EVs-are-not-enough.pdf

ssti.us/2021/09/13/the-amount-we-drive-could-make-or-break-clean-energy-plans/

[macmars45]

I wish my city was more walkable, had bike lanes and busing was better (longer hours and more routes to start).

[Velar Fricative]

I was reading this about Portland, which generally does more than most (all?) US cities to curb emissions from cars but even they’re running into obstacles.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/21/climate/portland-emissions-infrastructure-environment.html

[mrsukyankee]

We have a large group of people who are trying to lower the number of cars in London and people HATE on them. They are always arguing about how they NEED a car - we can't walk the kid to daycare or school (or they might have to, gasp use two buses). Always an argument about how they need to drive (or someone needs to drive). A lot of us are trying to get either a one way system to make sure that we can get better cycle lanes or to close down one of the roads for pedestrians/cyclists and it goes over like a lead balloon. When you can't get people on board in one of the most walkable areas of London that has great public transport, it's going to be a major challenge (plus we have a conservative gov't who is all against this anyway). It saddens me because London is definitely at risk to climate change.

[sillygoosegirl]

I 100% agree with you, but it's so hard not to totally lose heart in the face of so many people just not giving a shit. I feel so sad and defeated.

[wawa]

Apr 23, 2022 14:11:02 GMT -5 sillygoosegirl said:

I 100% agree with you, but it's so hard not to totally lose heart in the face of so many people just not giving a shit. I feel so sad and defeated.

My job is in this field all day every day and some days I want to toss it all in the shitter and go hide. But I keep showing up and keep fighting the good fight trying to convince my clients and colleagues that no, actually, we don't need to relieve that congestion by adding a car lane. We need to add a bus lane. And maybe a bike lane. Definitely a sidewalk.

[dcrunnergirl52]

Apr 23, 2022 14:52:54 GMT -5 wawa said:

Apr 23, 2022 14:11:02 GMT -5 sillygoosegirl said:

I 100% agree with you, but it's so hard not to totally lose heart in the face of so many people just not giving a shit. I feel so sad and defeated.

My job is in this field all day every day and some days I want to toss it all in the shitter and go hide. But I keep showing up and keep fighting the good fight trying to convince my clients and colleagues that no, actually, we don't need to relieve that congestion by adding a car lane. We need to add a bus lane. And maybe a bike lane. Definitely a sidewalk.

I worked for several years in transportation/air quality/climate change consulting and then in transportation policy at the Environmental Defense Fund on these same issues. Thank you for what you do. I know every day is an uphill battle. I transitioned to working on energy efficiency about 9 years ago, and that's increasingly moving into the EV sector, so the worlds are colliding.