Thursday, December 09, 2010

Smart Transportation Planners Wanted

There is intelligent life in Washington D.C. after all.  The Bipartisan Policy Center is calling for an overhaul of how our government plans its transportation spending.  The short version of a long story is that lack of comprehensive national planning leaves us with a patchy network unsuitable for a superpower. 

Improvement would be welcome news.  It would put an end to local nonsense thwarting the kind of national integration that global industry likes to see.    There is too much of such nonsense today with state governors turning down money for passenger rail lines that would help them build development around sustainable communities.  Shortsighted local politicians have no idea how much their communities will hurt when Peak Oil arrives and they missed the chance to build transportation systems to mitigate its impact.

Nobody likes kinks or hiccups in their supply chains.  Corporations will deploy capital elsewhere in the world where high-speed continental movement flows seamlessly into local distribution.  Politicians ignore this at their peril.