Keeping the E of "efficiency" in transportation
(published in the Great Falls Tribune, 5/97 and aired on KUFM, 5/97)
Recently, while watching a Congressional transportation hearing on C-SPAN, I heard a conservative Southern Senator say something that really struck a chord with me. He said, "I'd rather fix an old railroad than build a new highway." I couldn't have agreed with him more.
The hearing had to do with writing our nation's next transportation law. The current law, called ISTEA -- the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act -- expires in September. Not quite 6 years old now, ISTEA has just begun to do good things for America. Coming at the tail end of the Interstate Era, it was a real break with the past. When I think about ISTEA, I focus on two key words in that long title: "intermodal" and "efficiency." ISTEA attempts to tie all the transportation "modes" together in an "efficient" manner. That's a good idea, one that we should keep and expand upon.
For decades, we've been building just the opposite -- the "Single Mode Uneconomical Transportation System" -- call it SMUTS for short. This system, with which we're all familiar, relies on cars and trucks for just about everything. When the roads get clogged with traffic, the answer is simple: "Let's knock down some more houses and widen the road."
Slowly but surely, trains, trolleys, sidewalks, bicycle ways, and even communities have given way to more and bigger highways and more and wider roads. Our options have disappeared to the point that many of us now have to drive to a distant supermarket to get a quart of milk -- milk that was delivered to the store by a truck coming over the highways from hundreds or thousands of miles away.
As I watched the hearing, it became clear that the powerful Highway Lobby wants to gut ISTEA and go back to just building "highways as usual." You won't hear the AAA, the State Departments of Transportation, or the asphalt and concrete lobbyists talk about the crying need for trains, walkways, or more people friendly communities. You won't hear them champion the cause of kids walking to school, bicyclists getting to work, or trains carrying produce to market.
As I listened to them push for billions for new highways, I remembered a question that's bothered me for years now. Why do we keep putting more trucks on the highways while we pull up our nation's railroad tracks? These days, only 30 percent of our freight travels by train, while 70 percent goes by truck. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
When I see a 100-car freight train rumbling through downtown Missoula, I think about how many trucks it would take to carry that load and how efficient trains are. It takes about 14 percent as much energy to move goods by train as by long-haul truck. If we were smart, we'd use trains more rather than less and we certainly wouldn't pull up the tracks.
Now, I've got nothing against trucks, truck drivers, or trucking companies. They play an important part in the economy and, quite frankly, trains can't do everything. But we, as a nation, lose something important when we ignore the benefits of rail.
As the C-SPAN hearing wrapped up, the point I came away with was simple: We must keep ISTEA. We must continue to create a balanced transportation system that includes cars, trucks, trains, planes, buses, subways, bicycles, wheelchairs, and feet. Every mode must have a place. None should dominate. None should be left out.
But I'm here to tell you that if we leave it up to the Highway Lobby and their friends in Congress, this won't happen. Right now, they're working hard to trash ISTEA and go back to SMUTS. Their bills include billions of dollars for new highways, big cuts for clean air programs, and clever loopholes that would allow states to slash sidewalk and bikeway construction. Rail will continue its descent into irrelevance.
Will they succeed? They will -- unless we make our voices heard. If you
believe, like I do, that it's often better to fix an old railroad than build
a new highway, you'll get involved in the battle over ISTEA and America's
transportation future. Do it now.