Add More Trains, Not More Lanes.
I recently came across an article that was titled, “The 10 Most Congested Highways In America.”
First of all, the headline is misleading because, when you get into the article, you discover that their survey included no less than 328 stretches of highway in the U.S. and all were legitimate candidates for making the Top Ten.
The list, and all the data used to compile it, came from the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. The details of the study included how many bazillion gallons of gas we waste sitting in all those traffic jams, and how many tons of junk get pumped into the atmosphere. The ultimate irony is that the so-called freeways in this country—built to permit automobile traffic to flow freely—don’t do that at all. In fact, they are responsible for a hugely disproportionate amount of all that wasted gasoline and crap going into the air.
But here’s the thing: guess what’s almost always proposed as the answer to all that congestion and waste and pollution. Of course … more freeways! Assuming the human race manages to survive for another century or two, can’t you picture scholars in the 23rd century looking up from their research and saying, “Those damn fool Americans! What the hell were they thinking?”
It’s interesting that the study comes from a university in Texas and several of the congested freeways cited in the study are in that state. That’s interesting, because it seems more and more likely that this country’s very first legitimate high-speed rail line will open for business in Texas, linking Houston and Dallas.
And there’s really no question: once built, this high-speed rail line will be a success. And even the doubters and the nay-sayers will get to see what happens when, like freeways, rail lines reach capacity: You don’t have to add more lanes; you just add more trains!
Still the highway lobby will continue to do its thing and we’ll not only keep on spending billions to build more and wider freeways, we’ll pay cash. How come all those fiscal conservatives in Congress aren’t demanding that the highways break even?
Interestingly, another auto-hugging state, California, recently issued new regs thru its DOT requiring any new roads to include not just the price of construction, but the estimated cost of maintenance, repair, and replacement over its lifetime. Most folks are just oblivious to the actual cost to “their right” to drive; just as most do not read “City Lab” articles on this subject…
I have stated in other publications the immediate need to increase gas tax, set regular gas tax increases at the cost of living/inflation, toll the interstates; impose real user fees on bus firms using interstates and municipal streets for curbside depots, etc. We are dealing with the end result of how postwar federal policy picked winners and losers in transportation; directing public funds to build and maintain air and highway infrastructure, to compete with the privately-owned railroads, with every inch of the railroad taxed. Just pick-up an ORG from the 1950s to see what was once offered as a vast network of privately operated trains.
Ironically, the feds subsidized the airlines moving into this short haul market, destroying the rail networks. Now, seeking better profits, the airlines are abandoning these same short haul markets. As bus firms have cherry-picked the non-stop runs and also abandoned these smaller markets, it it only rail that can fill the void, connecting the towns to the major cities-and beyond.
However, a once per day train will not work, nor will the one long distance train running thru that corridor. Schedule frequency offering convenience and service will be required. With such a pent-up, unmet need, how many other All Aboard Florida potential candidates are out there watching and waiting for the right opportunity?
A possible answer to the question as to why fiscal conservatives don’t demand that the highway system break even could be due to wording in the interstate highway act that it is for defense purposes. That wording alone will cut ideologues at their knees. I keep beating the drum, but Amtrak should be changed to have wording in the law that authorizes it to give the same result to cut these ideologues at their knees.