Are We Changing? TIP Comments

We are faced with critical issues in our world today that society and humankind has never had to deal with.

Are we making the changes to deal with them?!!!

The 2000 World Petroleum Assessment (by the US Geologic Survey) identified that the United States, with 4.5 percent of world population and 2.7 percent of its oil reserves (including ANWR), uses 26 percent of the world’s daily consumption of oil. As I repeat every chance I get, according to climate experts, we need to reduce greenhouse gases to 60 to 80% below the 1990 level by 2050 to somewhat adequately deal with the global climate change issue we are facing. The transportation sector accounts for approximately 27-33% of GHG emissions in the United States, 61% of which are from automobiles and light duty trucks. According to a US Department of Energy from 2005, the transportation sector is the largest and fastest growing contributor to GHGs in the country.

The recent Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for the region brought to my attention, in a general sense, just how little we are changing our planning process to address these issues.

We are still planning for auto mobility, creating token changes to our infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists. We are still encouraging automobile transportation as if we were living in the 1950s.

Here is a link to our comments on the TIP.

And here is a link to Cville Tomorrow's coverage of the MPO Policy Board meeting where this was covered (including mention of our comments).

Thank you for reading!