Barack Obama
Photo by Transplanted Mountaineer

Today in Flordia, President Obama said this about transportation:

It’s imagining new transportation systems. I’d like to see high speed rail where it can be constructed. I would like for us to invest in mass transit because potentially that’s energy efficient. And I think people are a lot more open now to thinking regionally…

The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody… recognizes that’s not a smart way to design communities. So we should be using this money to help spur this sort of innovative thinking when it comes to transportation.

That will make a big difference.

Good stuff! Except, the last time I loved something Obama said, it was “[W]e will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s”. Now the stimulus doesn’t contain all that much transit as a portion of the overall bill, about 1%, but transit could see money more in future budgets.

Via Transport for America.

13 Replies to “Obama Praises HSR, Criticizes Sprawl”

  1. The talk sounds good — I hope the walk is equally encouraging.

    So far, I’m not feeling ‘warm and cozy’ about funding High Speed Rail (ala Cascades Corridor) from either our rail office or legislators in Olympia, or our DC delegation.
    It’s there for the taking! Just reach up and grab some low lying fruit.
    C’mon, get public, make noise.

    110 mph Talgo trains has got to be a better investment than pouring $50 million of fed money onto Mercer St.

  2. So far Obama has been very disappointing in my number one goal: Getting us off oil.

    Spending all this money to try to stimulate the economy dries up funds to make a real difference. Imagine 850 billion in transit, now we are talking real money.

  3. His talk is great and his walk is disappointing, but it’s important to consider the task ahead of him. A lot of the country has been in denial about the scope of changes that are necessary, and if Obama pushes the necessary solutions out of the gate he could freak people out. People love their cars and suburban lifestyles, and you can’t survive politically by openly telling people that love is misplaced and unsustainable. There’s a process of persuasion that begins with steps that seem almost criminally trivial to anyone who has been paying attention, and eventually progresses to real change as the political terrain changes.

    The real tests are first, whether there will be a subsequent and better recovery bill when it becomes clear the first one wasn’t enough, and second, whether Obama will push a transportation-only bill that shifts significantly toward rail and mass transit.

    1. The way I find his walk disappointing is that on major legistlation like the stimulus, this most-popular-president-in-50-years is differing to congress.

  4. He’s been in office for 3 weeks, we should be off oil, billions of spending for transit should be approved and we should all have jetpacks that run on good intentions.

    1. Yeah, people need to really relax. A stimulus plan is not the piece of legislation to fully fund HSR or completely re-invigorate our transit systems. And transit will receive $8-12 billion, which is a pretty nice boost.

      Now, I happen to think that a $50-200bn HSR investment would be a great job creation program, but that debate should be outside of the context of the stimulus. I also think that more federal funding should be shifted to transit, that the paperwork the FTA requires should be streamlined, and that the cost-effectiveness metric of transit programs should make more sense — these are also things that should happen outside of a stimulus plan.

      Just like major energy and health care policies should be separate. We don’t just pass one omnibus bill each congress. The transportation funding re-authorization is arguably a bigger deal for transportation policy than this stimulus plan.

      1. It wouldn’t be just re-authorization, they need to find a funding source that is not the declining gas tax as a way to fund transit.

        1. I’m referring to SAFETEA-LU reauthorization. Hopefully something happens on the gas tax front, but I’m not sure if it will this time around :/

      2. I just want to add, that this stimulus is $800+ billion and is thus a really big deal. A compromised half-assed bill that doesn’t stimulate the economy isn’t even worth doing.

        If I say, “this stimulus is really a bunch of crap like tax cuts for auto purchases or spending on nuclear weapons and just a bit of good projects like transportation, the electric grid and aid for states”, which I have been saying, and you say “the stimulus is not the place to fully fund HSR” I would say that you’re not listening to me.

        Especially since I want MORE highway spending in the stimulus bill.

        1. I was responding to other people who said stuff like HSR/oil-dependence/$850bn-to-transit in this thread.

          I agree that a lot more money should go toward infrastructure like a smart grid, transit, and even highways. But it’s the bill that can pass. I’m guessing the SAFETEA-LU will be “tainted” by the economy and our legislatures will want to fund it at a higher level.

        2. Yeah if they spent $850 billion right now on HSR and transit it’d probably be 90% wasted money. That stuff needs planning, costs analysis, etc.

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