Read on Twitter
I realized one thing reading the Green New Deal. While enviro policy analysts have tons of ideas for federal regs and programs, they are not as knowledgeable on how federal transpo policy (FHWA/FTA) has directly led to the most polluting transpo network in history
Like, the first obvious thing is to focus on the grant programs. If you look at any MPO's Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) list, it's chock full of projects abusing federal grants to fund highway/intersection widenings, assuming constant VMT rise
https://www.dvrpc.org/TIP/PA/
https://www.dvrpc.org/TIP/PA/
These planning agencies wax poetic about the future of EVs/AVs and how congestion can be dramatically reduced in just a few decades, but at the same time they're just pushing this shit through, with no regard to the future
This GND MUST focus on a wholesale reduction in VMT to further any meaningful environmental goal. And based on the very basic laws of induced demand, that must mean we need to regulate how states/regions are allowed to allocate their transpo funding.
Going back to @sandypsj's perennial tweet, we can fight against the boogeymen all we want, but we MUST come back to fact that fighting climate change is about changing personal choices. And federal policy is all about (dis)incentivizing specific choices https://mobile.twitter.com/sandypsj/status/991422237965086720
We MUST demand a complete revision in how federal highway grants are applied, what they're applied for, and how regions prioritize transportation funding wrt grant apps. We've let an entire industry run amuck for decades
https://twitter.com/gregorytcarlock/status/1078693092130197504
https://twitter.com/gregorytcarlock/status/1078693092130197504
"18 states established targets for non-motorized deaths and injuries that are higher than the number of people killed or injured in the most recent year of data reported." https://twitter.com/BethOsborneTA/status/1088190309371133953
Lot of resolutiony-type language here, seems lifted from the Data for Progress report. There's not even one mention of "subsidy" or "fossil fuel industry" in here
https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5729033-Green-New-Deal-FINAL
https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5729033-Green-New-Deal-FINAL
it'd be cool if this clause was explicitly referring to the oil industry and our federal road-building subsidies am i right haha kill me
oh my god the fucking audacity to frame it like this
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5729035/Green-New-Deal-FAQ.pdf
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5729035/Green-New-Deal-FAQ.pdf
Good thread on the political impact of MPOs https://twitter.com/dmtrubman/status/1253009143016890368
