Seeking a sustainable transportation system in the age of climate change

Our current transportation system is not at all sustainable. It forces us to spend more and more time moving around instead of providing convenient access to what we need. It is increasingly unaffordable, as the high cost of cars and fuel consumes a larger proportion of household budgets. It is not maintainable, as hard-pressed governments can't afford to maintain the far-flung transportation infrastructure built in the past 50 years. It is damaging the natural systems that support life. And it is incredibly destructive to the cities and towns where most people live.

What is the "sustainable" alternative? This section of the GCBL site develops a regional agenda for transportation that addresses the following:

• The recent — and radical — transformation of transportation to automobile dependence.
• Rethinking transportation as "opportunity space."
• The mindset of recent transportation planning (i.e., how we got into the current situation).
• How the fundamentals of transportation have changed in recent years.
• New principles of a more sustainable transportation system.
• How we can move into the future.

Follow the links at the bottom of the page for more on each topic.

It is incredibly important for everyone who is interested in creating sustainable communities to focus on transportation. Transportation infrastructure has a huge impact on the design of our neighborhoods, the competitiveness of our economy, and our quality of life. Moreover, transportation is where the money is:  the biggest source of capital dollars for civic improvements is transportation funding.

Thanks

This section was written primarily by David Beach, with assistance from Marc Lefkowitz, Brad Chase, Laura Christie, Ryan McKenzie, and Ken Prendergast. Project funding came from the Dolphin Trust. Additional support for GCBL transportation activities in recent years has come from the George Gund Foundation.

These ideas about how to rethink transportation draw extensively from two books: Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns: Better Living with Less Traffic by David Engwicht (New Society Publishers, 1993) and The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry by Robert Cervero (Island Press, 1998).