People in the trenches of remaking the way we live along more sustainable lines know that everything—transportation, community planning, energy sources, buildings—is related. (Thanks to Thinkshift client Joe Stagner, director of Sustainability and Energy Management at Stanford, for drumming this into my head.)
People who make policy have lagged behind in recognizing (and more importantly, acting) on this truth. It appears that might be changing, though. At CALSTART’s Target 2030: Solutions to Secure California’s Transportation and Energy Future conference earlier this month, John Barna, executive director of the California Transportation Commission (not normally thought of as a visionary agency), had this to say:
“The traditional thinking is, our goal is to build more, to allow more vehicle miles traveled. If we shift our thinking to person miles traveled, we’ll get to different solutions.” All the relevant state agencies, he said, “need to migrate to metrics and outcomes defined by actions and behaviors. It’s really about changing behavior. … We need to start talking about people and moving people, so transportation planners can start understanding it’s … about people. It’s not all about building. A measure of success is that the CTC could be renamed the California Sustainability Commission.”
Unfortunately, policy on the federal level still seems stuck in past—despite all the talk of change. California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols, just back from a trip to Washington, reported, “I heard from D.C. staff that they’re ready to go on climate change legislation and a new transportation bill, but they don’t think the two can be linked because it’s just too hard. It still looks as though air quality and climate change will be off in some small ghetto in the transportation bill.
“It’s too depressing to contemplate,” she said.
Indeed. Those of us who understand the importance of looking at the whole picture need to start pressing our representatives to do it.
