ENGLISH FOR CONGRESS ISSUE
PAPER (Revised January 2012)
Transportation Policy
The lack of an integrated national
transportation policy plan is undermining the nation's attempts at
reducing vehicle generated air pollution, increasing an
unsustainable dependence upon imported oil supplies, and
mitigating growing traffic congestion. As one of
the major components of a coordinated energy independence and
environmental action plan, the lack of an integrated and coherent
long-term national transportation policy precludes any meaningful
progress toward the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and
compliance with treaty emission reduction protocols (also please
read the separate Energy and Environment Issue paper).
European nations with integrated transportation and energy
conservation plans are now reaping the social, environmental, and
economic benefits of their national foresight. Commercial
trucks are banned from using the German highway system on
Sundays. Most major Western European cities are now
connected by high speed passenger rail transport service. New
rail/truck carriage tunnels now under construction through the
Alps will eliminate heavy truck traffic and its resulting
pollution of the pristine Alpine environment, not to mention
attendant reductions in diesel fuel consumption.
The projected rapid growth increases now being forecast for heavy
truck transport in the United States will seriously hamper future
progress toward energy conservation and air pollution
abatement. Heavy truck operations are the major cause of
rapid highway deterioration with the costs of periodic highway
reconstruction unfairly being passed on to individual
non-commercial highway users driving cars, SUV's and light
trucks. It has been estimated that passage of one heavy
truck causes as much highway wear as the passage of 7,000 cars,
but the commercial truck operators are not paying 7,000 times the
fuel and road use taxes that are assessed upon car
owners. The unwise growth in long-range truck
transport in the United States should be restricted by major
increases in commercial heavy truck road user fees with Federal
tax incentives to accelerate shifting their cargoes to high speed
rail transport. However, the consolidation of the railroads
into only a few huge regional combines has reduced competition for
a choice of rail transport providers in most areas of the
country. Deregulation of the railroads combined with the
emergence of these huge rail monopolies is likely to frustrate any
national policy toward shifting long-haul cargoes from road to
rail transport unless monopolistic price gouging and rail service
deficiencies can be constrained by new interstate commerce
regulation legislation.
The continuing abandonment of rail lines and rights of way should
be reconsidered from a combined national defense and economic
security perspective. Only one transcontinental rail line is
currently double tracked for most of its length: shifting most
long haul truck cargoes to rail transport will necessitate Federal
intervention to insure adequate rail transport network coverage
and capacity are maintained for economic growth, energy
conservation, and national defense considerations.
Similarly, Federal tax and other incentives to implement high
speed rail passenger service between major cities in the Eastern
and Central time zones and within California should become a
national priority. Air travelers on short haul airline
routes spend now twice as much or even more time getting to and
from airports and undergoing check-in and airport security
clearance as they do in the air. The vulnerability of
aviation to adverse weather conditions and terrorist incidents
will never be eliminated. Air travel will always remain
vulnerable to major disruptions from severe weather events.
There is also the currently ignored problem of increased
consumption of oil-based aviation fuels with their resulting
pollution of the upper atmosphere that sooner or later must be
considered if carbon-based emissions are to be reduced. The transition to a totally renewable energy
production, transportation, and building heating and cooling
economy after the year 2050 must become a major national goal
(please also read the Energy
and Environment issue paper).