Car is no longer king when it comes to policy

Submitted by hdavis on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 02:02

By BRAD COOPER
The Kansas City Star

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/07/03/2061386/car-is-no-longer-king-when-...

In a country where roads inspire songs, books and even the 1960s television series “Route 66,” the car isn’t about ready to release its grip on our lives.

But the King of the Road is losing some of its dominance with new policies — national and local — that could shift money to other modes of transportation.

As Americans become more sensitive to gas prices, the car is finding itself in a race with buses, bikes and pedestrians for big-time transportation bucks. “We are seeing a shift,” said David Warm, executive director of the Mid-America Regional Council, which coordinates transportation planning.

“This shift is not away from automobile traffic,” he said. “It’s a broadening of our notion of transportation to allow for a wider variety of mobility options.”

Last week, the Kansas City area adopted a long-range transportation plan that emphasizes energy conservation, environmental protection, public health and creating places that are compact, walkable and bike-friendly.

The plan sets the agenda for planning our highways, bus systems and possibly rail for the next 30 years. It could shift federal money from roads to other projects.

“It’s almost a certainty we’re going to see fewer highway projects funded than in the past,” said Ron McLinden, a longtime transit advocate. “I think we’ll see a slightly higher percentage going to transit and other non-highway modes.”

The plan is intended to reflect the community’s growing desire for more choices — and the reality that cities and counties are beginning to promote different ways of getting around.

Overland Park, Mission and Lenexa all have plans that call for densely populated, compact developments that are intended to create an atmosphere for biking and walking. Lee’s Summit is looking at how it can make its streets accommodate all forms of transportation.

A potential upshot, Warm said, is that we’ll see better roads that aren’t just for cars.

“We will still move around on roads,” he said. “It’s what do those roads look like, how do they function and what travels on them?”

The Kansas City effort reflects what’s happening in Washington, where President Barack Obama’s administration is proposing to put $527 million into projects that promote so-called livable communities.

The administration is promoting alternatives to the car and wants to fund projects that bring housing and commercial development together where residents don’t depend so heavily on automobiles.

Some experts point to the proposed lid over Interstate 670 on the south side of Kansas City’s downtown freeway loop as the kind of project that might get funded with the president’s initiative.

The lid would enclose the interstate and link downtown to the Crossroads Arts District.

“We know people are always going to have cars,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a congressional committee earlier this year.

“But we also know that people want to get out of congestion. They want different forms of transportation, whether it’s bus, light rail, walking, bike paths and other opportunities.”

A LaHood aide later told Congress that reducing car trips could cut how much the average household spends on transportation, which in Kansas City has historically run between 17 percent and 20 percent of yearly expenses.

The federal government is taking other steps to encourage alternatives to the car.

The Department of Transportation is loosening the criteria for picking rail projects, which could benefit Kansas City as it pursues a commuter rail network and a downtown streetcar line.

And LaHood recently drew fire when he announced on his blog that the government would “discourage” transportation spending that negatively affects bicyclists and pedestrians.

“This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized,” LaHood wrote.

But not everyone agrees.

“I think it’s good to provide people with options,” said Janet Kavinoky, transportation lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “But if the tactic for doing that is to try and starve the highway system or coerce people out of their cars, that is the wrong way to go.”

Kavinoky said some supporters of Obama’s plan want drivers out of their cars at all costs. And while LaHood will give a nod to the importance of moving freight on our highways, she said, at other times he’ll treat cars as the enemy.

“Sometimes the administration walks a fine line between promoting options and blatantly blaming roads and cars for the problems of America,” Kavinoky said.

Nevertheless, the trend away from the car is showing up in many ways locally:

•Kansas just adopted an $8.2 billion transportation program that will spend $100 million on transit over 10 years. That’s up from $60 million in the last 10-year plan, even though the new plan is much smaller.

•The Missouri Department of Transportation is examining the region’s needs for accommodating bicyclists and pedestrians. MoDOT didn’t put a bike lane on the new Missouri River bridge going up, but it’s putting bike/ped lanes on the Heart of America and Chouteau bridges.

•The federal government poured $50 million into the region for express buses in the Kansas suburbs and for fixing sidewalks and streets in U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s “Green Impact Zone.”

One of the biggest changes could be how regional planners dole out a portion of the transportation money that comes to the Kansas City area.

That surface transportation money has mostly gone for highways, but the Mid-America Regional Council changed the project-scoring criteria, and some believe that buses, bike lanes and other pedestrian projects will now compete favorably with roads.

About $54 million is expected to be available when local governments this month start submitting their project requests for 2013 and 2014.

For 2008 to 2012, 96 percent of the money in Kansas went to roads, as did 78 percent in Missouri, although many of those projects contained bike and pedestrian elements.

Regional planners say any change will likely be gradual.

“I don’t think we’re going to see a wholesale turn on a dime,” said Mell Henderson, director of transportation at MARC. “I’m sure we will still fund (road) capacity projects. But I think those projects are going to carry a lot of other features with them — things like bike lanes and sidewalks and transit stops.”

To reach Brad Cooper, call 816-234-7724 or send e-mail to bcooper@kcstar.com.

Posted on Sun, Jul. 04, 2010 12:47 AM