[Mpls] Needed Now: Transportation Paradigm Change

[Gary Hoover]

Kudos to SWJ for addressing transportation and environmental issues recently - for example:

 

http://www.swjournal.com/articles/2004/09/03/opinion/opinion01.txt  "Damn Obstructionists?"

 

http://www.swjournal.com/articles/2004/09/03/opinion/opinion02.txt  -- Citizen Pressure/Pollution cleanup

 

http://www.swjournal.com/articles/2004/09/03/news/news02.txt  -- Illegal SUVs?

 

http://www.swjournal.com/articles/2004/09/03/news/news04.txt  -- Crosstown Project

 

also Scott Russell's "Cool Summer Equals Less Pollution" and Robyn Repya's "City Studying Inadequate Storm Water Tunnels" and "Crosstown Environmental Assessment Gets Mixed Reviews."  (Sorry, I could not get the online links to these vol 15, no. 17 articles - maybe not archived yet?)

 

Of course, Brian Kaller's take on energy and transportation in the Pulse brought the energy-transportation relationship into sharp focus:

 

http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1249&mode=&order=0  Running On Empty

 

I would like to see us all take the discussion a step further:  Brauer, Russell, Repya, and Kaller have clearly done some research, and Justin Eibenholzl has pointed out that citizen activism makes good changes happen.

 

Our transportation planning institutions and public dialogue are riding a "runaway cement truck" with a great deal of momentum and speed, but the pavement of yesteryear's premises about environment, economics, geopolitics, and energy has run out.

 

Here are two articles by Howard T Odum, a well-reputed scientist who co-wrote "A Prosperous Way Down" with his wife Elisabeth in 2001.

 

http://www.mnforsustain.org/energy_ecology_economics_odum_ht_1973.htm  

 

http://www.mnforsustain.org/energy_odum_ht_energy_perspectives_1974.htm  

 

We need to look at our city and metro area as an "energyscape."  We can not afford the economic, ecological, energy, or geopolitical "crash" demanded by our current transportation paradigm.  We need radical change in transportation planning and design now - not in five or ten years.

 

-- pedaling for peace and ecojustice from Kingfield  -- Gary Hoover