Have you driven cross-country lately? How were the roads? You know poor road conditions in the United States cost over $54 billion a year in repairs and operating costs. That amounts to about $2.75 per motorist. Americans spend about three and a half billion dollars a year stuck in traffic. That, my friend, costs the economy another $63 billion.
Because of all this the United States transit use has increased to more than 25 percent over the last five years, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
According to the 2005 urban mobility report by Texas Transportation Institute, Portland ranks as the 20th most congested city in the country. Because of the availability of housing due to the price comparable to other states like California, Portland is just going to get more and more congested. By 2015, at this rate, it will be worse than Los Angeles.
More people means more automobiles on the already overcrowded streets and highways.
Portland is just one city; imagine a country full of the same problem. Billions of dollars are lost each year as a result of people and goods jammed up on our roads and highways.
Many cities have city bus service, which to some degree eliminates congestion. Still, Buses are not the solution to congestion because buses themselves get stuck in the same traffic jams as other motorists.
There is however another alternative that would work much better if people would be willing to use it. That, my friend, is the light-rail. For example, in a city such as St. Louis, automobile trips grow by 12,500 each month. So even after spending billions of dollars on a light rail system, without really using it, any congestion relief you did have will now be gone in a few months.
Portland carries a larger share per capita than that of any other light rail system in the country. Yet less than one percent of regional passengers travel on it. By some people’s standards, the light rail actually increases the congestion because it occupies lanes that could otherwise be used by automobiles. So what is the answer?
Personally, I believe it could be the light rail, but you must be willing to use it. Why pay billions for something this efficient and not use it?
Moving right along, here’s something that might interest you. A whole host of federal and state agencies are secretly working to construct a gigantic 10-lane super highway right through the middle of the good ol’ U.S. of A. From the Mexican border north to Canada in an effort to promote trade under NAFTA.
Come on, people, whose lives are really going to benefit from this? Certainly not the thousands of homeowners and farmers that will be pushed out by development land grabs. As one writer put it, this super highway is merely a temple to the oil gods and big business.
Where is all this money coming from, you ask? Well, plans are largely hidden from the public, however the Department of Transportation has helped fund the project by extending multi-million dollar grants to the North American SuperCorridor Organization. Various government agencies and scores of private non-government organizations have been working behind the scenes to create The N.A.F.T.A highway. A pairing of United States and Spanish contractors, Cintra-Zachry, plan on paying the first leg of this, that is from the Mexican border to Oklahoma for 7.2 billion and in return would operate that portion and collect tolls for years and years and years!
Sounds nice huh? Well, happy motoring. Semper Fi!