Of all of the
areas that must be properly managed in order for a plan to be successfully
executed, four stand out: Human,
Budgetary, Material, and Time resources.
When it comes to land use and transportation planning, there comes a
point when high level human skill sets, economic sagacity, and innovative material
technologies cannot bail us out of certain situations because we just simply
run out of time.
I raise this issue to continue
the debate about our regional transportation network in terms of its
sustainability and resiliency. Land use and transportation planning are inextricably
linked. We measure time in ten and twenty year increments when we discuss
transportation and projected land uses. My
concern is that we are running out of time to plan a 21st century
regional transportation network, because we govern our actions by 20th
century cultural and political values. Using a decade as our metric, it appears have we boxed ourselves in
and may have not given ourselves adequate time to make the necessary
adaptations, adjustments, and changes needed to sustain our current
transportation system or guarantee that our network bounces back after a
catastrophic event or series of events.
Our region’s public policy has
shortchanged and continues to shortchange public transit. This is because we
have been lulled to sleep by relatively inexpensive gas and oil. So too, has
globalization been made possible by an abundance of inexpensive fossil fuel
energy. But what happens when the price of gasoline skyrockets, military
conflict, or natural disaster makes individual automobile use and the
supporting roadways impractical? Have we
built redundancy into our regional transportation and land use planning regime?
This goes beyond Smart Growth for
sustainability. There are those who argue that ‘sustainable development’ is an
oxymoron, particularly as it relates to our never-ending green-field
development of the hinterlands. Are we prepared to make a transition to other
transportation and land use options should it be made necessary by unforeseen
events?
To
plan, finance, and build bus terminals, transit centers, and rail lines
requires years and decades. The same is true with road construction. However,
no sooner than the concrete dries on our highway and roadway expansion projects
we have spent years and decades to plan, finance, and build, they are rendered
obsolete due to latent demand. When our
cheap energy subsidy comes to an end, we will be clamoring for more transportation
options. Yes, even in Texas, where every cowboy and cowgirl loves his or her
own horse, riding the stagecoach is a nice option to have every once and a
while. Without a serious, sober, and sensible plan to build regional
transportation network resiliency through redundancy in the form of multiple
options, we are going to find ourselves out of time and out of luck. Start now,
and in ten to twenty years we will be grateful that we did recognize the time
and what must be done.
