Yesterday in his weekly address, President-Elect Obama announced that his transition team is working on a two-year, nationwide plan to create jobs rebuilding the country’s infrastructure. The President-Elect specifically mentioned improving roads, bridges, schools, and investing in clean-energy.
A member of the Obama-Biden Transition Energy and Environment Policy Team posted a followup video specifically mentioning the need to invest in mass transit as part of this plan (around 1:50 in the video).
We all have an amazing opportunity to have a part in ensuring the success of this plan, and seeing real change throughout the country in the near future. Here on STB, we’ve started talked about what’s next, and we’ll continue to post about how everyone can get involved. It sounds like we will soon have an ally in the White House, and I am hopeful that 2009 will turn out to be a very interesting year.
You can share your ideas at obamaurbanpolicy.org. Be sure to also let us know in the comments what you propose.
If you’re so inclined you can “send a message” to lawmakers through Transportation for America. Who knows how effective this is, but it takes ten seconds and can’t hurt.
I didn’t see the words “mass transit” (or even just “transit”) or “train” or “rail” anywhere in the transcript.
Other mentions:
“Jobs” 8
“energy” 3
“road” 2
“bridge” 2
“alternative” 1
“wind” 1
“solar” 1
Don’t get me wrong, this is a good plan and I support it. But we shouldn’t read something into this that isn’t there.
I meant the original Obama address. I’m happy that an Obama official followed up with more details, but it worries me that they bury transit well below everything else. I hope for the best, but question the incoming administration’s true intent.
Apparently on the Seattle PI Local Transit Forum, there is a guy who just posted something saying that the address meant Obama was anti-transit. Personally, must have been good cover putting one of Amtrak’s most loyal supporters and customers on the ticket.
The poster used this article to send out what could be baseless claims.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008394521_apobamaeconomy.html
Just before the election, the Obama/Biden ticket sent this response to T4America.
http://t4america.org/blog/archives/534#more-534
Have you seen that obamaurbanpolicy.org website? “Investing in world-class rail” is running away with it, and behind it, two smart-growth policies are running away from the rest of the pack.
Hybrids are not a solution. Not even a step in the right direction. Better cars = more sprawl. A $7,000 tax break to buy a hybrid? Free public transit would be a much better investment.
Just because a car is a hybrid, doesn’t make it green. First, there was that kerfuffle over at Toyota over their Tundra hybrids being less fuel efficient on the highway than the gas only version.
And now, diesel engines have gone through a significant transformation. The VW Jetta TDI just won the Green Car of the year.
It seems to me that manufacturing and purchase incentives need to be fixed to a measure that considers both emissions and mileage per gallon.
Incentives to buy cars? Wrong direction. Even if all the cars in the world became electric overnight we would just be switching from oil to coal. We would still have sprawl and the paving of farmland. We would still have the waste of building and disposing of the car. We would still have parking and congestion problems. Let’s stop the subsidies to private profit and invest instead in our publicly-owned transit systems. Stop charging a fare. The fare punishes people for doing what is best for all of us.
I’m having an Obasm!!!