Robert Puentes

New approach to transportation

Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution, Jun 23, 09.

Tagged with transportation, environment, government, housing

By the annals of Congress, it’s seemingly unremarkable, but an extraordinary hearing took place this week at the Senate Banking Committee. The secretaries of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, appeared together and specifically spoke about cooperating to tackle the big economic, energy, and environmental challenges facing the country.

To do so, they promised a fundamentally new approach to transportation policy and recognized that the system we have in place today is no longer up to the task.

It may not seem like much, but it is a sea change in how Washington does business.

It’s also a necessary change as we’ll need every ounce of creativity and innovation to surmount the historic economic, energy, and environmental hurdles we face today.

This nation’s growth will magnify the task. Between now and 2030, it is anticipated that we will develop another 213 billion square feet of homes, retail facilities, office buildings and other structures. That’s two-thirds the amount of built space existing in the United States today.

So, how and where we build in the future carries far-reaching implications for the health of our environment, our energy security, and our economic recovery—and will continue to impact our metropolitan areas’ success and America’s ability to compete globally.

Full story: Joining Up Transportation, Housing, and Environmental Policy
Source: The Brookings Institution, June 17, 2009

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