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Smart Growth America / Transportation For America Communications Director David Goldberg was interviewed for the current issue of Mother Jones Magazine. In the wide-ranging interview, he discusses some of the history of SGA — but also discusses the prevalent economic and market forces that are reshaping consumer preference and affecting our growth patterns.

Read the full interview here.

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MJ: What do you think is going to happen to all those homes that are out there—we see a lot of them in the Bay Area—of people who live far out and want to commute in? With the mortgage crisis, do you have any research on what is going to happen to those homes? Are they eventually going to be bought up or turned into something else?

DG: That’s a really good question. I think in the near term a lot of people are going to be stuck in a place that they don’t necessarily want to be stuck, and they’re going to find that it may take awhile for the housing values to recover in those areas, and they may not. I think the whole calculus has shifted. We did a poll on some transportation issues earlier this year, and in response to the question “Do you agree or disagree with this statement: Gas prices are only likely to get higher in the future?” 92 percent agreed. And similar numbers for how concerned people were about it and for how concerned they were for the nation that we were so oil dependent. I think that people’s perceptions are that that is a dangerous place to go. That might change, or we might miraculously see a couple of years of cheap gas again, and people’s memories may fail them, but I don’t think so.

MJ: Have private developers been getting on board with smart growth projects increasingly? Are they actually seeing this as something that can help their bottom line?

DG: Absolutely. The difficulty is that it is more complex to do these projects. It still takes multiple variances in the zoning codes. You often have to put together two or three different developers to do the different components: One is better versed in multifamily, the other one is single family, another one might do retail, although more and more developers are starting to get all those components in house. They’re starting to get better at it. Whey they succeed, they are more profitable. They hold their value better. And they offer a hedge against trouble in a particular market segment—you’re more diverse, so if people aren’t buying condos, they may rent your apartments. So that diversity helps. But the thing is, first of all, you need the expertise and you need a little bit of staying power, because the up-front costs can be more in terms of the planning and the approvals and in some cases installing the infrastructure.

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Yesterday, on the heels of the Wall Street bailout and hours before the final presidential debate, policymakers, community and business leaders, activists and citizens gathered in six cities across the country to call on the next President and Congress to strengthen our economy by building a 21st Century transportation system.

They were joined by more than 3,300 people — including some of you perhaps — who signed onto a petition with Transportation For America urging the candidates to tell us their plans for a world-class transportation system at last night’s debate.

The events and the petition highlighted “Build for America: A Five-Point Plan to Get Our Economy Moving,” a bold agenda that has the potential to create millions of good, green jobs, save Americans thousands of dollars per year, and reduce America’s dependence on oil once and for all. (“Build for America” was created by the Transportation for America campaign, of which SGA is a co-chair.)

Build For America proposes a five-point plan:

BUILD TO COMPETE with China and Europe, by modernizing and expanding our rail and transit networks to reduce oil dependence, connect the metro regions that are the engines of the modern economy.

INVEST FOR A CLEAN, GREEN RECOVERY through cleaner vehicles and new fuels as well as the cleanest forms of transportation – modern public transit, walking and biking – and for energy-efficient, sustainable development.

FIX WHAT’S BROKEN before building new roads and restore our crumbling highways, bridges and transit systems.

STOP WASTEFUL SPENDING and re-evaluate projects currently in the pipeline to eliminate those with little economic return that could deepen our oil dependence.

SAVE AMERICANS MONEY. Provide more travel and housing options that are affordable and efficient, while helping people to avoid high gas costs and traffic congestion. Save taxpayer dollars by asking the private developers who reap real estate rewards from new rail stations and transit lines to contribute toward that service.

“Americans are running on empty, with falling home values, rising gas prices, and a lagging economy,” said Shelley Poticha, co-chair of Transportation For America and president and CEO of Reconnecting America. “We’re here to say that we can start building a way out of this mess with a wise investment strategy.”

Though it’s too late to tell the candidates that you want answers in last night’s debate, it’s not too late to take action with Transportation For America and demand that Congress and the next President provide us with a true 21st Century transportation system. You can tell them that:

We need our nation’s leaders to invest in public transit, high-speed trains, places to bike and walk, and green innovation. We need leaders with a plan to put 15 million people to work in jobs that can’t be outsourced, bring down the costs of travel, and create a sustainable infrastructure that will keep America on the cutting edge. Make the commitment today to help build real transportation alternatives that get our country and economy moving again.

Learn more, download the Build For America plan, and take action at Transportation For America today.

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While we have our offices here in Washington, D.C., we try our best not to come at things with a DC-centric focus, thinking “outside the Beltway.”  So pardon me for just a moment while we toot the horn of our hometown. It may be local for us, but it’s certainly national in significance, representing an important development for cities and communities across the country.

Over the last few weeks, DC became the first North America city to launch a public bike sharing program. Smartbike DC, as it’s known, isn’t quite like Velíb in Paris, but it’s a good start. 120 bikes are located at 10 kiosks around the core of downtown, and a $40 annual subscription gets you unlimited use of any of the bikes in 3-hour segments with a smart card. But you don’t need me to tell you all about it. Watch the video above from Streetfilms as a few Streetsbloggers tell you all about it.

I for one, am looking forward to using this over the weekend.

To take one of these for a spin in the beautiful weather. See you all Monday.

Flickr photo by *Sally M*

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There is a fascinating story on the cover of this month’s Wired Magazine about Shai Aggasi and Better Place, Inc., and his out-of-this-world plan to turn the car industry as we know it on its head. His plan is essentially to replace the car as the primary commodity being sold by automakers, and turn them instead into energy companies, selling electricity to power a worldwide fleet of electric cars, simultaneously slashing emissions, reducing the need for oil, stimulating investment in alternative energy, and discovering a new industry worth billions or trillions of dollars:

Agassi dealt with the battery issue by simply swatting it away. Previous approaches relied on a traditional manufacturing formula: We make the cars, you buy them. Agassi reimagined the entire automotive ecosystem by proposing a new concept he called the Electric Recharge Grid Operator. It was an unorthodox mashup of the automotive and mobile phone industries. Instead of gas stations on every corner, the ERGO would blanket a country with a network of “smart” charge spots. Drivers could plug in anywhere, anytime, and would subscribe to a specific plan—unlimited miles, a maximum number of miles each month, or pay as you go—all for less than the equivalent cost for gas. They’d buy their car from the operator, who would offer steep discounts, perhaps even give the cars away. The profit would come from selling electricity—the minutes.

Whether you think that cars feature prominently in the near future as oil gets more expensive and new alternatively-fueled autos are still years away, it’s a fascinating story well worth reading. Aggasi’s fundamental business plan is so radical, it’s akin to you or I walking into a room full of scribes in the 14th century transcribing ancient encyclopedic volumes, and showing them not a printing press — but a laptop connected to the web and surfing Wikipedia.

h/t to Reid for the link.

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“All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our Nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.

Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this Nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our Nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.

In little more than two decades we’ve gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous tool on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It’s a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our Nation.

The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our Nation. These are facts and we simply must face them”

President Jimmy Carter
July 15, 1979

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Guest post by Barbara McCann, coordinator of the National Complete Streets Coalition

A new poll out from AARP documents how incomplete streets are making it tough for older Americans to avoid paying the high price of gasoline.  Almost 40 percent of those polled say they don’t have adequate sidewalks in their neighborhood, 55 percent say that they don’t have bike lanes or paths, and 48 percent say there is not a comfortable place to wait for the bus.  Most sobering, almost half (47%) of poll responders say they cannot cross the main roads safely.

AARP’s Senior Vice President for Livable Communities Elinor Ginzler put it succinctly:  “More Americans age 50+ are trying to leave their cars behind but face obstacles as soon as they walk out the door, climb on their bikes or head for the bus,” said Ginzler,

Yet despite these barriers, about 40 percent of respondents reported they have given up their car for some trips and are walking (29%), taking transit (16%) or riding a bicycle (15%) to beat high gas prices. And of those who reported an inhospitable environment outside their homes, more than half, 54%, said they would walk, bicycle, and take transit more if their streets were improved.  This shows the tremendous unmet potential of our street network to provide more ways to get around.

A majority of those polled also expressed support for complete streets policies, which ensure that roads are planned, designed, and built for all users. AARP is a solid supporter of federal complete streets legislation and is working on a research paper and resource guide on accommodating older drivers and pedestrians as part of complete streets initiatives.

For more on the poll, read the news release from the AARP.

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You may have seen oilman T. Boone Pickens around lately.

If not, then you haven’t turned on your television, radio, or opened a newspaper in the last few weeks. He’s been touting his new Pickens Plan nonstop to nearly any outlet that will listen, taking out full-page ads in newspapers from coast to coast and even enduring inane questions from low-watt bulbs like Larry King.

It’s pretty heady stuff, and worthy of the attention. Whenever a rich guy who made their fortune off of drilling, refining, and selling oil tells you that cheap gasoline is gone forever and we need someone to tell us the hard truth about energy if we’re going to keep our country moving, you tend to listen up.

Most of his plan hinges on converting a sizable chunk of our transportation fleet to natural gas and harnessing the abundant wind energy blowing through the midsection of America (that he’s already started to tap into.) It’s laudable stuff, and while not perfect, acknowledges the alarming problem of being so dependent on oil from foreign sources — having paid more money to foreign countries last year than we did to our military to protect us.

So he was invited to testify before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs last week about his huge, visionary, long-range plan to wean us from foreign oil (and arguably make us dependent on domestic natural gas instead, to be fair.)

SGA President Geoff Anderson was also invited to join Pickens in testifying, and he talked about a simpler side of the energy equation: Cutting down on vehicle miles traveled and trips necessary by investing in convenient walkable neighborhoods — in high demand these days. Check out this take on Geoff’s presentation:

His presentation was on the future development of “walkable communities” as opposed to “drive only communities”. Basically, what he was referring to was the fact that the past century’s residential development had been geared to the development and widespread use of the automobile as the primary means of transportation … to the point that most residential developments were based on the necessity of the automobile to reach required services. One fact he presented was that currently only 11% of school children walked to school as compared to 50% in 1960.

He discussed a “walkable community which had been developed in Atlanta, GA. [he’s referring to Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta] It was anticipated that the residents in that community would only drive an average of 27 miles per day compared to the typical (?) 34 miles per day that the average Atlantan drove. They found that the average resident of that community actually drove only 9 miles per day, 1/3 of their estimate. A “walkable community is one where nearly all essential services and many nonessential services are within walking distance of the resident’s home. He envisioned “walkable communities” interconnected by convenient forms of mass transportation.

Ultimately, just as Earl says in his post, there is no magic bullet solution. All of these ideas presented in the hearing are going to be part of the solution in some way — though some will take much longer to develop than others. There’s no “one” thing that’s going to solve the energy and climate dilemma. We need energy from alternative sources just as much as we need to break down the barriers that are preventing investments in walkable neighborhoods and expanding convenient public transportation.

But think of the numbers: If tomorrow someone is moving and chooses to move from a place where they drive 30 miles a day down to a new place where they can take convenient transit and walk more, cutting their daily miles down to 9, isn’t that a huge overnight savings in energy costs (and emissions reductions)?

Watch the full hearing here on CSPAN

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Just for fun and in the same vein as last year’s post about Buffalo Bills quarterback J.P. Losman loving life in downtown Buffalo, I noticed this story about some other professional athletes eschewing what perhaps most would expect to describe the lifestyle of a professional athlete — drive an expensive vehicle and live in a country club far from downtown.

Via the Washcycle, check out this story in the Balitmore Sun about a handful of Orioles who have been getting to the ballpark via a transportation mode that’s a bit of a departure from the typical Porsche or Cadillac Escalade:

Fans are accustomed to the players’ lot being filled with expensive rides - sports cars, HUVs, private jets. But you should check out the clubhouse sometime, or the weight room. There are enough bikes parked there to hold the Tour de France. I keep waiting for players to change into yellow jerseys, though that honor probably should be delayed until they’re in first place.

At last count, the cyclists include Guthrie, Luke Scott, Aubrey Huff, Brian Burres, Garrett Olson and Lance Cormier. Nick Markakis dropped out after buying a house in Monkton.

The Orioles might be the only team that has more use for a bike rack than a bat rack.

What’s next? All-star Cleveland Indian pitchers taking public transportation to the ballpark?

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Good story today in the Washington Post as part of their ongoing “Oil Shock” series, with this one focusing on the consumer impacts of rising prices. If it’s not already, this is beginning to sound like the theme of 2008, as rising energy prices are like a rudder in the water turning the ship of consumer preference around — albeit slowly. It is worthwhile to note that it’s not about regulations or fiat — this is the response of the market. As President Bush said a few weeks ago, “They’re smart enough to figure out whether they’re going to drive less or not…the consumer’s plenty bright.”

From “Gas prices apply the brakes to suburban migration“:

Federal spending is about 4 to 1 in favor of highways over transit. Today, more than 99 percent of the trips taken by U.S. residents are in cars or some other non-transit vehicle, largely as a result of decades of such unbalanced spending.

The policies — building so many highways and building so many houses near those highways — have had a direct bearing on how and where people live and work. More Americans, 52 percent, live in the suburbs than anywhere else. The suburban growth rate exceeded 90 percent in the past decade.

But there’s been a radical shift in recent months. Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer highway miles in May than a year earlier. In the Washington area and elsewhere, mass transit ridership is setting records. Last year, transit trips nationwide topped 10.3 billion, a 50-year high.

Home prices in the far suburbs, such as Prince William and Loudoun counties, have collapsed; those in the District and inner suburbs have stayed the same or increased. A recent survey of real estate agents by Coldwell Banker found an increased interest in urban living because of the high cost of commuting.

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Around 30 to 40 years ago, the percentage of kids that walked to school was around 60-70 percent. Go into a room of older adults and ask them to raise their hands if they walked to elementary or middle school, and you’ll be looking out on a field of arms waving in the breeze. Go into a room of college freshmen today, and ask them the same question, and the hands will be few and far between.

It’s a hard number to track exactly, but it’s clear that the number of students walking to school has plummeted. The U.S. Department of Transportation puts the number of students living within just one mile that walk to school at around 30 percent.

Less than 1/3 of students that essentially live within walking distance are walking to school.

With fuel prices going through the roof, school districts all over the country are looking for ways to cut back the massive expenses that busing students each day can accumulate. To put it in perspective, Fairfax County here in the Washington, DC area, runs the largest busing operation in the country. Over 1,500 buses transport over 100,000 students five days a week, representing higher ridership than Greyhound. And those buses are getting between 5-8 miles per gallon for the most part.

Loudoun County, another suburban DC county a little further from the core that was largely rural until just the last 20 years, is struggling mightily to pay their annual fuel bills (close to $5 million), and is considering asking more children to walk to school each day. But in a county of cul-de-sacs, two-lane country roads, arterial highways, few sidewalks, and relatively few walkable areas, they’re likely to find that kids who live close aren’t walking to school for very obvious reasons:

It’s not safe, it’s not enjoyable, and the districts are so large that most kids are scattered far from the school.

The Washington Post reports today:

For instance, children are eligible for busing if they live within the walking zone but would have to cross a major road or a dangerous area to get to school.

Encouraging more kids to walk to school is a great idea, but the quality and design of the built environment are likely to be the greatest barriers in keeping even kids who live close by from walking to their schools. As the story says in the closing, “There’s just so many benefits to [students’] walking, if it’s possible.”

If it’s possible, indeed. If we walk more kids walking to school, saving us billions in fuel costs each year, we need to save our smaller neighborhoods schools and ensure that new schools are built in places with good connectivity.

Learn more about the importance of school design in a community’s growth patterns with these two resources:

National Trust for Historic Preservation
Smart Growth America: Children and Schools

photo: Smart Growth America

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