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Mass Transit Helps Cut Global Warming and War
We need to start viewing climate change as both a security and environmental challenge.
Two subway cars on Washington, D.C.'s Red Line - which I usually ride to work - recently collided. It was the worst accident in this subway's history, killing nine D.C. residents and injuring scores of others. The National Transportation Safety Board's advice to the local transit authority soon came to light: Replace older-model subway cars, including the ones that crashed. The NTSB had said this three years ago, but the transit authority hadn't had the money to do it.
The Metro disaster has security implications that extend beyond the safety of subway passengers like me. Developing clean mass transit is a key piece of the solution to the most serious security challenge of our time.
World leaders will gather in Copenhagen in December to try to agree on a plan to stop climate change. If they fail, the consequences will include large land masses around the world rendered uninhabitable by drought in some areas and by flooding in others. The U.S. military has begun to see these consequences as not merely a massive human and planetary tragedy, but a major potential cause of increased violent conflict.
Climate change, in other words, is a security challenge as well as an environmental problem. Developing transportation systems that reduce greenhouse gas emissions is part of the solution.
Doing so is an expensive proposition. As the subway wreck suggests, the money hasn't been there to do it.
The money has been there, though, for military security. Since 2001, U.S. military spending has ballooned by 70 percent, to nearly $700 billion a year. Although the Obama administration has proposed the most ambitious set of spending cuts in unnecessary weapons programs since the early 1990s, it also proposed an even larger military budget overall than any of the previous Bush administration models. And while the wreckage of the subway crash was being cleared away, a congressional committee was voting to add more money to this budget, to build advanced fighter jets that the military itself says we don't need.
Unlike its predecessor, the Obama administration takes the threat of climate change seriously. At the heart of its vision of economic reform is the construction of a sustainable economy, with green technology - renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean transport - as one of its principal drivers. Though the climate change bill working its way through Congress is seriously flawed, the administration has made a down-payment on a green economy through its spending plans so far.
In the last fiscal year, the Bush administration spent $88 on security by military force for every $1 it spent on climate security. The Obama administration's spending plans would narrow that gap to $9 for the military for every $1 spent on climate - a huge improvement.
But there's a catch. Of the $79 billion it budgeted for green investment, the great majority - 87 percent - comes from the stimulus package Congress passed in February. The regular budget includes only about $3 billion more in green investment than the Bush administration spent in 2008. This barely narrows the gap at all: taking the military's environment ratio from 88:1 to 85:1.
You can't build a low-emissions economy with a one-time investment. The security of my fellow subway riders depends on changing our long-term investment strategy. The Earth's security depends on that too. We need to take money from weapons systems we don't need and use it to build the green economy we do. This economy must be viewed as, among other things, a conflict-prevention device, because it can prevent the climate-change-driven violence that our military forces will be powerless to stop.
This op-ed was distributed by Minuteman Media.
26 Comments so far
Show AllFree public transit... it is a no-brainer
http://freepublictransit.org
Sorry, there is no "free" anything. Someone must pay for whatever it is.
Urban planners have the right idea but the wrong execution. People will not ride "unsafe" public transit. Systems designed to run both ways on a single track are subject to technological and human error often ending in death. No thanks.
People are less civilized than necessary to run a public transit system effectively and inadequate investments in public security leave people vulnerable. No thanks.
Solve these problems first, then let's talk again.
To refer to public transit as "unsafe" when compared to any other mode of transportation is absurd. Nine people dies in DC metrorail train crashes over the past 25 years, In other US cities, the number is zero or nearly zero. How many hundreds of thousands died in car crashes over the same period?
The difference is that I am a safe driver and unlikely to be the victim of a serious car crash. I trust myself. I don't trust a municipal bureaucracy with my life, nor do I trust the low paid operators of the trains etc. If you disagree with me that is fine, but I would not so easily dismiss my concerns. They are shared by many. If you think that taxpayers in an increasingly difficult economy will subsidize a transit system that they would not ride, then I believe you will be disappointed in their response. Locally the transit system has become known as the Hieronymus Bosch system. I believe you understand the meaning.
Sorry, statistics don't work that way. You can drive as safe as you want and someone will still someday run a red light.
I have uses the DC metro system plenty of times. I think it is excellent, except the fares are awful high during ruch hour. The train operators and bus drivers are actually unionized and well-paid, but that will make you hate them even more.
Now, please go back to free republic or wherever you came from.
"I think it is excellent, except the fares are awful high during ruch hour."
The Orange lines are pretty bad. I once tried the metro from the Vienna station to Rosslyn and back and boy was it a total pain. Parking was a living hell as finding even one spot at 6:30 AM and the high cost was enough to put us off. Then the overcrowding and the lack of backup cars. Maybe inner DC is ok but Northern VA is a total wreck on all transportation. And living in Sterling, too far away to access and very few bus options available and very limited schedules even today. I'd live in Fairfax County and east of it but those damn apartments and houses are obscenely overpriced and I'm used to the residual countryside out in Loudoun County. Sorry.
Oh please ! You gas guzzlers need to knock off your rightwing libertarian trash talk ! If it weren't for you gas guzzlers, the planet wouldn't be screwed. Even driving in a small car that's very fuel efficient doesn't make me comfortable at times but I don't have much of a choice when gas guzzlers like you happily bankrupt public transportation !
Unfotunately, if mass transit (and walking or bicycling) is ever going to replace the car for most USAns, the whole suburban model of development needs to be abolished. It will have to be replaced with redevelopment of depopulated urban neighborhoods and abandoned downtown areas of so many small cities and towns. Any new development must be the traditional main-street-and block-model. This will be a huge undertaking, and will only happen if fuel costs become much higher than they now are. Also, USAns get over this idea of a "right to a free parking space" - which drives the incredibly inefficient land-use that an aerial view of any US suburban area shows.
"Unlike its predecessor, the Obama administration takes the threat of climate change seriously."
No shit? And exactly what has this administration done differently than Bush/Cheney about any aspect of the energy issue?
Also, mass transit only succeeds where it is designed around the movement of people going to and from work.
We have mass transit in Atlanta but it was designed politically and not geographically. MARTA was built for the sole purpose of moving people between downtown Atlanta and the suburbs when most of the work traffic moves among the suburbs and has little to do with downtown where jobs have been disappearing for decades.
q
I know each rider on DC's lines are subsidized as are all riders on Amtrack....is MARTA ridership subsidized? Do you know?
All public transit is government subusidised, everywhere in the world, usually to a greater degree than the US. Riding is free in some European cities. It is a vital part of any desent city's infrastructure.
Automobile use is heavily subusdized too - or did all those highways build themselves - along with all that car and highway safety research by the DOT. Same with air travel. Airports, air atrffic control and aviation safety research isn't cheap.
You hit the nail on the head pjd412. If government quit subsidizing Big Auto, our national debt would be cut significantly. Plus my husband and I wouldn't have to curse those rotten gas guzzlers on the highway trying to bully small car drivers such as us. Gawd, I can't stand those big vehicles especially when it's only one person driving it with nothing heavy that a small car couldn't handle to carry to work.
Not necessarily. Some companies fully reimburse while others don't. I live in the DC area myself.
By subsidise, I don't think Henry8 was referring to employer fare benefits - I got that at my federal government job - a free monthly pass every month.
By "subsidy" he and me mean government funding of capital improvements and operating expenses not covered by fares.
Whatever the amount that's being subsidized, none of that money is going towards any improvements and there have been none in 5 years despite all the loud lying out there. Come out here and see for yourself. Unless you're travelling within DC, it's as shoddy as it can get. Business management scandals at the DC Metro come up all too often. I already know that all federal employees get it free but not the rest of us working in the private sector. With the unemployment hell getting worse, hoping from one stressful temporary job to another is about all I could do. I don't expect the DC Metro to ever be extended to Dulles Washington Airport even in 30 years with the way the current system is failing itself.
The problem is that sprawling suburban areas, of which Atlanta is the national poster child, are far too spread out for any public transit system, even ordinary bus routes to be very usable. Thousands of separate routes would be needed to get from one point in suburbia to another point in suburbia on a reasonable schedule. And most of the sidewalk-less suburban roads are dangerous to even walk to the bus or rail stop on.
It is strongly suggested, as a first step, that more employers, residents and retail move to the closer-in older neighborhoods, or or at least along the MARTA lines.
All those sprawling outlying communities, will need to become self-contained communities. Someone should expect to be able to live in Tucker and work in Kennnesaw.
Mostly, the Atlanta area is a lost cause.
So that means you have every right to drive your car and spout off about the environment because the system is not designed to your liking? Typical hypocrite.
So how do we create the conditions under which both people and mass transit will thrive?
The best answer I know is by shifting our taxes OFF buildings, off wages, off sales and ONTO land value. Doing so will nudge the owners of well-located but underused urban sites, already well served by many kinds of taxpayer-provided infrastructure and services, to put those sites to something resembling their highest and best use, instead of continuing to bide their time while their investment "ripens" or their child or grandchild reaches college age and needs tuition money.
Their activity will create jobs -- nice! -- but more important, it will create venues where entrepreneurs can work their business plans; housing affordable to a wide range of ages and stages close to the center of things. New buildings will consume less energy and serve more human needs. Those entrepreneurs will create jobs, will compete for our patronage, driving down prices and increasing the variety of goods and services. They need to be in places that are well served by infrastructure, in order to have the pools of customers and employees which will make their business a success. A spot on the fringe just doesn't cut it.
This is a case of aligning our incentives with where we want to go. Look into Land Value Taxation. I think you'll find a lot to like.
Here in Pittsburgh a split rate system was used until 2001 - a higher tax rate for the land and a lower rate for the buildings. In spite of some very hard hard economic times in past decades, the downtown and close-in neighborhoods are reasonably vibrant - cartainly much better than other "rust belt" cities like Clevland or god-awful Detroit. Since 2001, tax rates are now equal - but there are improvement districts where a land tax surcharge still applies. Few vacant properties close-in and virtually none downtown. So maybe the land tax helps. Pittsburgh was rated #1 most livable city in the US by the UK's Economist Magazine. Admittedly, at #29 worldwide, it was way down from, #1 Vancouver, #2 Vienna, #3 Melbourne, #4 Toronto...)
The DC Metro hasn't been doing great in the past few years and has gotten into management scandals all too often. The fees are ridiculously high and yet the quality is piss poor and has never been improved. It's high time DC Metro lowered its ridiculously steep prices.
The author should also tell us if her company is reimbursing her for her daily commute on the metro. 95% of those who take the metro to work are often reimbursed. Companies have been cutting back on that and since driving to work is generally cheaper than metro, the ridership has actually gone down rather than up despite the false reports and the traffic jams even on the HOV lanes where my husband and I travel on have gotten even worse.
I'm sorry but the author is dead wrong to suggest that Obama is any different from his predecessor in taking global warming and the need to improve public transportation seriously. In Europe, you don't have to wait 30 minutes to an hour if you miss your bus stop and the trains are not put into induced delays. It's all come and go. Our public transportation system has been dying ever since Eisenhower started the freeway system with no one stopping the pols from doing their highway pork barrel spending. Let the highways die off please so that we can get some really green jobs such as bringing back metro to life and keeping it that way. If Obama can't stop that and still wants to pour more gravy for war spending and bailing out the auto giants, forget mass transit being mainstream in the forseeable future. Only Mother Nature will punish this country and give us the karma we truly deserve !
I wonder when they'll up the fares here in Pittsburgh. Is Port Authority Transit still running out of money? Are they still cutting routes?
I bet when all the affluent, able-bodied, suburbanites are riding into town the fares will drop, and the buses will run more often. As of now it's mostly the poor, the handicapped, and the elderly who rely on it the most around here.
Since high school I've been having to take buses. Sometimes it's really convenient, others it sucks and seemingly take you forever to get to where you have to go. It depends on where you're going, what day, and what time.
"To refer to public transit as "unsafe" when compared to any other mode of transportation is absurd."
I know it's safer to bus it when the roads are bad. Ever notice that the buses are fuller when we get a nice snowstorm?
People might find themselves in better shape too if they used public transportation. At least where I live, if you wanna get home at a decent hour, and you're bussin' it, you have to do some walking. Most people have a bus stop down the hill or up the street from them, not in front of their house.
*huff* *huff*
And if you make working a right, and give everyone a job along with all the expanded public transportation, man that would solve a few problems.
"I bet when all the affluent, able-bodied, suburbanites are riding into town the fares will drop, and the buses will run more often."
It's not happening here in Northern VA and despite the crowd, the metro fares are getting obscenely expensive. We have a state run VRE but it's just as far out of our reach.
"Sometimes it's really convenient, others it sucks and seemingly take you forever to get to where you have to go. It depends on where you're going, what day, and what time."
There were plans out here in Loudoun County, VA to improve the stops and timings but rarely does anything pass for that. The busing sucks in our area but I'm further out from Washington at the outskirts of Northern VA.
Mag-lev trains are the future of mass transportation, but most people have never heard of it. These trains can safely travel 500 miles per hour on a cushion of air using magnetic levitation. Never heard of it? Who had heard of the internet in 1990? To our children and grandchildren Mag-lev will be a household word, and as common as air travel is today.
Unless Americans are willing to give up their SUV's and hummers, their talk of "green" and the environment is just that: TALK.
I bussed it to work today. For a 10am ride, there sure were a lot of people. Both buses I took were close to full. Somebody's ridin'.