Summer Travel

TRANSPORTATION AND TRAVEL CHOICES
Dave Rockwood, Transportation Committee

Gas prices are creeping back up, and I am beginning to cringe at what I know will be an expensive summer driving vacation to the cool shores of Lake Superior. Why are gas prices rising? Under normal circumstances, increased demand leads to increased prices - simple economics - and in summer tens of millions of North Americans take driving vacations, so gas prices rise. On top of that we have less economically recoverable oil available, as we have been burning it as fast as we can pump it. The geologic process of converting plants to something we can make fuel from takes many millions of years, whereas we are adding new humans to the planet at the rate of about 225,000 per day. So, there is little doubt that fossil fuels are going to continue to get more expensive, which might cause you to reconsider how badly you want to live 25 miles from where you work or where your kids go to school, or where you are willing to drive for a vacation.
The pain we feel from increased travel costs will at some point affect our behavior. Reducing our personal fuel consumption though, is only one solution to a large problem. If we have other transportation options, as a society, we can realize lower costs for fuels and also have less pollution, less traffic congestion, and more choices. Good transit options, bicycle paths and on-street routes, good sidewalk networks, and pedestrian-oriented property development and street designs will all help to bring our individual travel costs down and provide better accessibility for all members of society. Those of us of us who drive often forget that a lot of people – more than one third of Americans – cannot drive because they are too old, too young, or have disabilities.

It is encouraging to see recent, local efforts improve our transportation options, including the recent announcement of the formation of the Evansville Trails Coalition to raise funds and advocate for additional bicycle and walking paths; ARRA funding for the Pigeon Creek Greenway and the Rivertown Trail in Newburgh; the focus on transit by Congregations Acting for Justice and Empowerment, which brought 900 people to St. Benedict’s Cathedral in April for a public “action” concerning local-regional bus service; and the beginning of a “healthy communities” initiative by the Welborn Foundation, which will encourage improvements in many facets of our community, including enhancements for active (muscle-powered) transportation.

I haven’t forgotten about gas-electric cars or nitrogen-powered vehicles, and the like. But if we continue to design our communities and lives around cars, we will be wed to sprawl development and all its ills, including poor health outcomes of driving everywhere, landscape loss and habitat destruction, air pollution, traffic congestion, and loss of time and income to driving. My family is able to get by on one car because we live close enough to my work place and a bus route, that I can take the bus to and from work. Sometimes I ride the three miles on my bike, and I occasionally walk. Over the past five years this has freed up a lot of earnings that have gone to better uses than maintaining a car for commuting purposes. I’m not sure that we won’t have to get another motor vehicle at some point, but I can hardly fathom the cost of another car, but maybe a scooter.

I’m not disparaging anyone’s choice to live in the hinterlands; I lived in some pretty remote places and some subdivisions during my bachelor years. This is just food for thought. And although “alternative” transportation is often perceived as a strictly urban issue, there are a lot of rural residents who use paratransit services and many more who use fixed-route buses where there are park and ride facilities. On rural roads that have large shoulders (such as much of Wisconsin), bike commuting can be safe and efficient. And even if there are no nearby attractions, sidewalks in suburban subdivisions encourage people to walk and provide safety to those walking. Have a nice summer, and go out and enjoy a walk around your neighborhood.