Collision Course
A common criticism of aggressive action to fight climate change is that such policies would exact a toll on our economy and quality of life. Yet, as Sunday’s collapse of the freeway in Oakland highlights, we seem all too willing to absorb the cost and uncertainty of having our economy entirely dependent on a fragile network of roads. Amazingly, the actions of one man are sufficient to seriously disable the transportation network in one of our primary metropolitan areas, affecting both the movement of goods and the mobility of thousands of car addicted workers. Given the number of cars and trucks on the roads, statistical probabilities would suggest that accidents should happen all the time, and, in fact, they do. So often that accident clearance strategies appear near the top of most lists of proposals to relieve congestion in the U.S. We have essentially acknowledged that our roads are just one long smash up derby open to the public. As long as we can clear the debris quickly enough, we find no reason why the action should not continue unabated.
The price tag for repairing the freeway will run into the billions and Gov. Schwarzenegger has already asked the Federal government for assistance in paying for the costs of this disaster. The news analysis has, of course, missed the incredible irony of a truck filled with gasoline causing so much turmoil for legions of oil worshipping drivers. More significantly, no one has asked the obvious question: why don’t we have a modern national rail network capable of moving the lion’s share of our freight and avoiding the dangerous game of Russian roulette we play by mixing cars and trucks on our combative highways? A healthy rail network would, in all likelihood, have avoided the accident. Even if the accident had occurred, the impact on commerce would be significantly less if more of our freight was moving by rail.
We shouldn’t forget the blessing of the Bay Area’s massive public transit system, including BART, which was offered free to all riders today. As the New York Times reports, commuters enjoyed a surprisingly easy commute, in part because many commuters are believed to have stayed home to avoid the potential chaos. The timeline for repairing the freeway is uncertain, but at least two months away due to difficulties in obtaining the steel necessary to rebuild the structure. During that time, commuters will invariably adjust, causing Sarah Rich of Worldchanging to wonder why we are so determined to return to the old order. She highlights a number of similar scenarios throughout the country where public officials need to seize on the unfailing human capacity for adapting and make long overdue steps toward a less car dependent world.
The case for rail is even stronger after you examine the staggering increase in trucks on our nation’s highways and the calls for improvements in the infrastructure and amenities to accommodate this trend. The proliferation in trucks, as the Wall Street Journal highlights, is most easily seen in the lack of parking for trucks at rest stops:
Thanks to a strong economy, more trucks than ever are moving on the nation's roads, transporting goods. But the number of places where truckers can stop and get some shut-eye during long hauls isn't expanding as fast. New Jersey, voted by the trucking industry as the nation's worst state in terms of rest stops, has only five public rest stops with bathrooms on its interstates and main state roads (not counting toll roads). In Connecticut alone, there's a shortage of 2,200 public spaces for trucks each night, says the state's transportation department. The shortfall forces trucks into less attractive options, such as trekking miles away from the main roads to find a place to stop, paying for private lots or simply soldiering on until they hit the legal limit of driving 11 hours at a stretch, before they must get a federally mandated 10 hours of rest. If there are no open truck stops nearby, they simply pull over to the side of the highway, even though stopping on the shoulder for anything but an emergency is against the law.
Thankfully, local communities are doing their best to prevent the construction of the unsightly facilities, which sprawl across 40 acres of land and attract thousands of trucks, which congest local streets and idle throughout the night. While policymakers will look for a convenient panacea, the problem is once again a symptom of the neglect of our rail network. As with all forms of congestion, new construction will not relieve the stress from the crush of trucks on our highways. A return to rail is in order. For a nation fearful of any threat to our way of life, the appeal is this: the chokehold on economic growth over the next few decades will come not from the slow march to sustainable solutions like rail but from our blind over-reliance on cars and trucks.
Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk/Flickr