Transportation is key and simple steps like riding a bike can help

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H.G. Wells said, “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”

Wells lived in the golden age of bicycling, street cars and railroads in the late 19th century. But with the advent of the automobile, America handed over the keys to our transportation system to motorized vehicles and the fossil fuel industry. Deeply interconnected with housing, personal cars drove suburban sprawl – most of it systematically segregated by race and class via legal and fiscal instruments like zoning, redlining and discriminatory lending.

Of course, the car industry didn’t do this by itself. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 financially incentivized states to demolish urban communities of color in order to build fast roads for suburban commuters – Routes 6 and 10 through Olneyville in Providence are a perfect example.

All of this led to (many) people spreading out, living farther away from where they work, go to school, shop and socialize. The design of most American communities now revolves around the automobile – single family homes with two-car garages, minimum parking requirements for all types of buildings, nightmarish four-lane “stroads” (think Route 2 in Warwick), drive-thrus – on and on. Cities are choking on traffic, and commute times are ever-increasing.  

Because this is about the climate crisis, I won’t even mention the public health and safety aspects of our land use, housing and transportation decisions. I will say that this has led us to a point where, according to the 2017 National Household Travel Survey, of the 46% of U.S. trips that were three miles or less, 77% were driven, 19% were walked, 2% used transit and only 1% were biked.

In Rhode Island, we are blessed with short distances. Admittedly, we are not blessed with a transportation system that allocates resources to maintaining the roads we have, let alone dedicated biking and walking infrastructure or high-frequency public transit. Which is why, according to a recent report by the Stockholm Environment Institute, Rhode Island’s transportation sector contributed 40% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2016. The report revealed that we have a 20-year window to make dramatic changes to our GHG emissions in order to avoid catastrophic climate consequences. 

On transportation, it says, “The most effective approaches combine ‘soft’ educational and behavioral change campaigns with ‘hard’ structural reforms like zoning laws, carbon taxation, and major investments in pedestrian and bicycle facilities and public transportation.”

It’s time for Rhode Island to ride the winds of change. So, who is responsible?

First of all, the government. In Rhode Island, our Department of Transportation and Division of Statewide Planning (under the Department of Administration) are directly responsible for the policies, planning and projects that will begin to solve this massive, concrete problem. The Governor appoints the leaders of those departments. Unfortunately, the leadership at those agencies is still talking about spending $200 million to widen I-95.

Let’s be clear: just like power plants or oil pipelines, car infrastructure is fossil fuel infrastructure. And electric vehicles will not save us.

Without long-range planning for shorter commutes, densifying our suburbs, and investing heavily in non-car transportation options, we won’t see the greenhouse gas reductions we need. Some municipalities are starting to work on this, using the framework of transit-oriented development – high-density housing and commercial districts clustered around train stations.

Pawtucket is currently doing important work in this area, responding to the fact that millennials and other groups are rejecting the practice of sitting in traffic for hours to get to work. Similarly, Providence is about to release its ambitious Great Streets Initiative, which envisions a citywide network of urban trails for biking and rolling. The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s Transit Forward 2040 plan is also in development – a major step in improving our statewide public transit.

Although these problems are deeply systemic, there is an element of personal consumption here as well. Just like reducing our meat eating, composting, using reusable bags and bottles, and other environmentally conscious behaviors, decreasing the amount we drive is a fundamental way to be a steward of the planet.

Much better than individual choice, though, is collective action. Throughout the state and the country, organizations are working hard to address these issues through bicycling, walking, transit, smart growth and development, affordable housing, and more. There are so many ways to work on solutions, and bring your elected officials along for the ride.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me to find out how.

LIZA BURKIN is the project manager for a soon-to-be launched coalition called Our Streets PVD. Drop her a line at lizaburkin@gmail.com for more information. 

The Conversation, climate change