By Petra Todorovich

The crisis in our financial markets and the deepening national recession suggest difficult times for the United States. But, sometimes a crisis is necessary to rally sufficient leadership and popular support for radical changes to address entrenched policies, practices, and inertia.

With regard to infrastructure and economic recovery, we have two key challenges to meet.

First, we must rally support for making sufficiently bold investments to put people to work and make transformative investments in infrastructure.

Second, we must ensure that the choices we make about infrastructure provide new models of decision making and accountability to obtain investments that will transition the nation to be a low-carbon economy with energy independence, and a sustainable, equitable future.

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This month, America 2050 released its most recent report: An Infrastructure Vision for 21st Century America. This report highlights the need to develop a bold and compelling vision for investing in the nation's aging water, energy, and transportation infrastructure in a way that will help America meet the key challenges of the 21st century. These challenges include America's fast-growing population, deteriorating infrastructure, the deepening recession, our competitiveness in a global economy, fairness and opportunity, and climate change and energy security.   

The report makes the case that the federal government should provide leadership in aligning its energy, transportation and water infrastructure policies to support environmentally sustainable development, efficient and reliable transportation systems, and sustained, robust economic growth. Currently, many of the federal government's programs are ineffective or obsolete, or work at cross purposes, such as transportation policy that increases our reliance on foreign oil, or federal farm subsidies that encourage fertilizer and pesticide use that pollutes our drinking water.

Over the next year, America 2050 will build on this report to create physical plans for national systems of transportation networks, electrical transmission and water infrastructure and specific policies to encourage greater accountability, decision-making criteria for project selection and performance measures.

Regional Plan Association and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy convened scholars and planners at a research seminar in Healdsburg, California last April to explore an emerging urban form: the megaregion. Megaregions are networks of metropolitan areas linked by economic and trade relationships, transportation infrastructure, large natural systems, and growth concerns. First identified as "megalopolis" in the 1960s, the Northeast Megaregion, from southern Maine to northern Virginia, presents the most recognizable example of this urban form. The report includes four scholarly papers examining case studies of megaregions in California,Texas, the Midwest, and Western Europe. Read the press release.
Download the full report (15 MB)
Download the report in sections:
Cover and Table of Contents (6 MB)
Introduction by Armando Carbonell
Megaregions in California: Challenges to Planning and Policy by Michael Teitz and Elisa Barbour (2 MB)
Connecting the Texas Triangle: Economic Integration and Transportation Coordination by Ming Zhang, Frederick Steiner, and Kent Butler (5 MB)
U.S. Regional Economic Fragmentation & Integration: Selected Empirical Evidence and Implications by Edward Feser and Geoffrey Hewings (1 MB)
Polycentric Mega-city Regions: Exploratory Research from Western Europe by Peter Taylor and Kathy Pain (.5 MB)
Summary of Meeting (.6 MB)

Photo: Mayor Shirley Franklin delivers the keynote address at the Rockefeller Foundation Urban Summit, July 8. Seated at left is Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

1808-1909-2008: National Planning for America by Robert Fishman

Economic and Equity Frameworks for Megaregions by Christopher Jones

Policy Options for Climate Change Mitigation by Amber Mahone

Land Development and Growth Management in the United States: Considerations at the Megaregion Scale by Thomas Wright

A Land and Resources Conservation Agenda for the United States by Frederick Steiner and Robert Yaro

A Transportation Strategy for 21st Century America by Petra Todorovich

On February 20 - 22, Regional Plan Association and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy convened 32 transportation, economic development and regional planning practitioners to discuss the future of America's surface transportation policy at the Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. 

The goal of the roundtable was to develop a strategy for national surface transportation policy in America that can effectively deal with long term trends, such as rapid population growth, demographic change, emerging megaregions, climate change and rising international trade and goods movement. Three briefing papers were prepared in advance of the roundtable on: vision, finance, and legislative strategy, respectively. The papers can be downloaded below. Notes and a summary of the roundtable will be available in the coming weeks on this website.

For Download:

Michael D. Meyer, "Toward a Vision for the Nation's Surface Transportation System: Policies to Transcend Boundaries and Transition to a New Era"

Gary Maring, "Future Financing Options to Meet Highway and Transit Needs."

Mortimer L. Downey III, "Legislative Considerations for Long Term Policy Change."

* The views expressed in the papers do not necessarily reflect those of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

 

Authored by Armando Carbonell and Robert D. Yaro This article compares the new Megalopolis to the European approach and highlights the goals of the American Spatial Development Perspective. Download the report

By Armando Carbonell, Mark Pisano, Robert Yaro, Pria Hidisyan, Welma Fu, This document builds upon "Toward an American Spatial Development Perspective." Download the report