Fact: The colony of Massachusetts was the first to issue paper money in America
Opinion:
The smart growth movement has been undermined by many things, however none more so than the interstate highway system. Smart growth has had its political challenges and been challenged by academics. However, the hidden detriment has been the interstate highway system that has become an institutional barrier to the principles of smart growth.
Smart growth aims to direct development to areas already served by existing infrastructure, provide for an equitable and predictable development pattern, conserve open space, provide for mixed transportation and end sprawl while revitalizing existing urban neighborhoods to livable and thriving communities.
The success of each of these principles has been and will continue to be undermined by our current highway system. The interstate highway system has many benefits and should be heralded for the wonderful way it connects the country. However, it has made us too auto dependent and facilitated urban sprawl. The ability to move rapidly from location to location by automobile utilizing a safe, well maintained and designed roadway system has facilitated the rapid outgrowth seen in the post-WWII era, just as the highways were being built.
Just as they facilitated the outgrowth that smart growth tries to undo, the highway system puts a barrier to these goals. Transportation funding and subsidies is disproportionately skewed to roadways and away from mass transit. Mass transit must them struggle to set prices to remain viable, without pricing out the very customers they want/need to serve. While those not served by mass transit complain that they do not want to subsidize transit systems they do not use, they miss the point that mass transit riders are subsidizing a transportation system (highway) they do not use through their taxes.
The highways that rip through urban cores dividing cities make the reconnection of neighborhoods and communities difficult. It makes residents reliant on mass transit, which has issues as described above. Having an interstate highway rip through a neighborhood in a city, does not make walkable communities a viable option.
The ability to build a new road and connect new developments removes green space and adds to the problems of sprawl. Until we have the political leadership to halt the facilitation of interconnecting everything with a road we will continue to grow out, not in and become auto dependent. Until there is political courage to end the inequity of transportation subsidies, mass transit will continue to struggle and residents of cities will become increasingly auto dependent.
If we want to really revitalize the urban core, make existing communities thrive and while containing outgrowth and promoting infill we need to address the highway system. We have become a victim of our own success. The interstate highway system has many benefits and made economic prosperity possible in the post-WWII era, however, it also has many drawbacks. We as a society need to admit them and work to address them if we are committed to achieving sustainable and smart development in the future.
I love you dearly, but sometimes I wonder how your mind actually works and the snippets of information retained .