EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The transportation sector is the single largest source of greenhouse gases in the United States, contributing to 29% of the nation’s total emissions. 1 The majority of these emissions come from driving. The reality is, we have become far too reliant on cars. We need a Green New

The Federal Highway Act of 1956 led to the growth of the highway system and, by linking gas taxes to the Federal Highway Trust Fund, allowed the government to subsidize highways. It also allowed state and federal highway departments to purposefully choose to build roads through African American neighborhoods, using language such as blight removal, as ways to justify the action. 2 This Act guaranteed a stream of money, providing 90% of the funding used to build the interstate highway system. Meanwhile, as highway construction benefitted from public funds, regional transit systems and railroads remained mostly reliant on private investment. To this day, while Congress continues funneling 80% of federal transportation funds into highways, only 20% is allocated for public transit. 3 This imbalance continues to tilt policymakers and politicians toward favoring automobiles as the dominant mode of transit over multi-passenger transportation systems. It also has encouraged land use planning and urban design practices to give preference to cars. In order to shift this narrative, it is necessary to fund alternative modes of travel by subsidizing public transit, instead of cars, and by investing in Complete Streets projects that ensure safe and connected bicycle and pedestrian networks.

Imagine cities where parking spaces were scarce but rapid transit buses were abundant. Today, parking is free for 99% of all automobile trips in the U.S. because cities have been planned around minimum parking requirements. 4 The endless quest to satisfy peak demand for free parking uses precious city space. The result is available and low-cost parking but great societal cost. As

Deal progressive parking expert Donald Shoup argues, as long as we continue to make minimum parking requirements a condition of development, we subordinate almost every other function of our cities to the need for free parking and cars as transit.

A Green New Deal for Transportation would ensure that people have safe and convenient ways to reach their destinations using shorter trips, shared trips and alternative modes of transportation.

How do we get there? For starters, we already have the money. It’s just being spent in the wrong places. The average American consumer spent $8,427 a year on automobile transportation in 2016, they spent just $1.10 in annual tax dollars to build new or expanded quality bus lines. 5 It’s time to shift our priorities.

It will take more than money. It will also take good planning. Cross-jurisdictional coordination will be vital to ensuring every community has access to reliable public transit. In addition, while federal transit policy revolves around building and expanding projects -- adding transit lines and roads -- there has been little done to improve transit effectiveness, such as frequency and speed of service. Those conditions are necessary to making public transit more attractive to potential riders. During the Obama Administration, $48.1 billion was allocated for roads and transit following the 2009 recession. 6 However, almost all of those funds were given to new investments, instead of improving maintenance and operations.

While fossil fuel-based transportation is a major contributor to climate change, automobile-dependent cities also struggle with air pollution, degraded infrastructure and flooding, extreme heat and intense winter storms. To reduce transportation’s carbon footprint, it is essential we stop the continuous expansion

new highways, roads, and more lanes instead of public transit, biking, and walking, we undermine economic, equity and climate goals.

The answer is to transition to a more environmentally sustainable and socially just transportation system. The United States must implement a Green New Deal for Transportation and that includes addressing the following problems in our public transportation system: 1. Operations and maintenance is insufficient.

If we want to encourage more shared modes and fewer automobiles, the government should invest more in public transit reliability and less on automobile infrastructure. This means recasting the Highway Trust Fund to devote more public dollars to transit opertions improvements than to the creation of new highways and roads.

2. Incentives are in the wrong places. The reason our country is so reliant on car ownership is because we have overly subsidized personal vehicles and underfunded public transit options.

3. Urban development favors cars. Half of all trips made are three miles or less. Fewer than 2% of those trips are made by bicycle, while 72% of them are driven. Cycling can easily replace short automobile trips, but installing protected bicycle lanes is necessary to ensure people feel safe while cycling.

4. Urban solutions don’t work for rural

America. Between an over-reliance on private vehicles and a lack of public transit alternatives, residents of sparsely populated and geographically spread out regions face differing transportation problems than those of urban dwellers.

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In order to make this transition possible, we have to recognize what is holding us back. The problems in our transportation network that have inhibited a clean and just system center around four main issues -- current public transit is not reliable or frequent, transportation subsidies are in the wrong place, urban design has been centered around roads, and urban solutions do not work for rural settings. With targeted and specific policy, we can change this.