America 2050

In June, National Public Radio launched a new series titled America's Crumbling Infrastructure.   Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation and Robert Fishman, planning historian and professor at the University of Michigan were interviewed.  Rodin suggested that the philanthropic world will bring together key stakeholders and fund new ideas to improve the nation's infrastructure.  Fishman discussed the impact national planning has had, and will have, dating as far back as our founding fathers in the growth and development of the nation.  The vision for the 21st century, according to Fishman, is sustainability - our ability to adjust to conditions in the future. 

Click here for Judith Rodin and Robert Fishman's interviews. 

 

June 29th: Armando Carbonell, Chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy was interviewed on NPR's new series, America's Crumbling Infrastructure.  Carbonell addressed the question: Are Megaregions the future of Transportation?  He replied that this country needs a national vision and an integrated strategy that is informed by regional differences.  Megaregions offer the right scale for making infrastructure investments, such as high-speed rail.  Carbonell also stated that higher energy prices and climate change will alter the lifestyle of the American public. 

Listen to Armando Carbonell's interview.

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell was also interviewed on the series, and addressed the question: who will pay to fix our crumbling infrastructure?  Rendell, along with NYC Mayor Bloomberg and California Governor Schwarzenegger started the "Building America's Future" coalition, which aims to achieve an economically viable future by getting into the business of fixing our infrastructure.  We have a $1.6 trillion backlog to bring our existing infrastructure to a state of good repair.  The top priority is bridges, followed by clean and waste water management.  But to do this, emphasized Rendell, we need federal assistance and leadership.  Referring to our history of national planning, Rendell states that we can keep up the legacy of our founding fathers, but we just need the will to get things done, and the federal government to step up to the plate. 

Listen to Gov. Ed Rendell's interview.

 

Amtrak's fortunes may finally be turning around. The National Rail Passenger Corporation has been fighting for its life for the duration of a hostile Bush administration and ever since the last Amtrak authorization bill of 1997, which directed the corporation to become financially self-sufficient and brought about a decade of service cuts and deferred maintenance that worsened Amtrak's poor performance and reputation.

But last Wednesday's vote in the U.S. House of Representatives may usher in a new, more hopeful era for passenger rail in this country. The bipartisan bill (H.R. 6003) would authorize $14.4 billion over five years to support Amtrak, including capital grants to Amtrak itself to invest in new passenger cars, rehabilitate aging bridges and replace railroad ties and overhead wires, and to states to improve passenger corridors and facilities. (For the New York region, this could mean improvements to Moynihan Station may be eligible to receive the state capital grants.) The bill also reverses the self-sufficiency directive as did a similar Amtrak bill passed by the Senate last October. The two bills must now go to conference and pass both houses again before being signed into law.

The Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University released a report in May titled, Megapolitan: Arizona's Sun Corridor. The study examines growth challenges in one of the nation's most rapidly growing regions: the Tucson-Phoenix corridor. Poised to double in population from 5 million to 10 million by 2050, the region will grapple with the environmental challenges of accommodating rapid population growth in a fragile desert environment. Ensuring an adequate drinking water supply and mitigating urban heat island effect without the use of increased vegetation (which requires additional water) are two big challenges. Urban form is another important consideration; detached single family homes are by far the preferred development type in this region, but their proliferation will contribute to sprawled development and make transit options less viable.

The changing demographic and economic environment in the corridor is prompting researchers and leaders to think about how the corridor can one day become a significant economic, technological and cultural center, while growing in a sustainable way. At a recent workshop sponsored by the Sonoran Institute and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, planners considered the implications of this emerging megapolitan region with the report's authors and local transportation and community leaders.

America 2050 is featured in this week's The Economist in an article about America's growing infrastructure problems.

"America 2050", led by the RPA and a committee of scholars and civic leaders, has a ... scheme for "megaregions", or networks of metros. The federal government should do what it can to ensure that these areas, first of all, have the infrastructure they need to thrive.

This means, among other things, an enhanced federal role in projects that cross state borders, including not only the interstates but intermodal freight and high-speed rail. A better system for evaluating a project's benefit--within a broader strategy for economic development, for example--would help the public get more for its money. Metros would be given more incentives to reduce congestion and sprawl.

...

If America does not act, says Robert Yaro of the Regional Plan Association (RPA), a body that plans for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region, it will have the infrastructure of a third-world country within a few decades. Economic growth will be constricted, and the quality of life will be diminished.

Link to the article here.