Imagine a world where your commute doesn't involve navigating traffic on pothole filled roads while inhaling exhaust fumes. A world where your transit is part of your leisure time, where the journey is as delightful as the destination. Sounds like a dream?
Welcome to our vision of a Green New Deal for Transportation.
Let's start with our neighborhoods — the places we call home. Close your eyes. Imagine your ideal neighborhood. The sun filtering through the trees, kids playing freely in the street. The constant rumble of traffic is absent, replaced by the sound of bicycle bells, the laughter of children, and vibrant conversations. You casually stroll or cycle to your local market to pick up groceries for dinner, seeing familiar faces along the way. Your neighborhood isn’t just a place to live, it’s a safe, buzzing community. This is a key element in our vision for a Green New Deal.
This blueprint for our neighborhoods includes protected bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly sidewalks to replace congested roadways. In this future, a trip to the local market is no longer a chore that requires a car, but a pleasant walk or bike ride. With more exercise built into our daily routines and cleaner air to breathe, we’d all be a little bit healthier, too. And all this face-to-face time brings people together, fostering social cohesion and community engagement.
Almost as a side effect, we will have taken a vital step in reducing carbon emissions and fighting the climate crisis: eliminating the need for short car trips.
But this is just where you live; what about everything else?
Your alarm blares at you. It’s time for work. You quickly shower, get dressed in a hurry, scarf down breakfast, and rush out the door. Minutes later, and your fast-paced day comes grinding to a halt. You’re stuck in traffic. You hate sitting in traffic. We all hate sitting in traffic. So why have we designed our cities around endless traffic?
In 2019, the average American spent ninety-nine hours in traffic. That's over four days of your life each year, confined to your car, surrounded by aggressive honking and gross exhaust fumes. And then there’s the accidents. Over 40,000 people die in car accidents every year. For young people aged 5-29, car accidents are the leading cause of death.
But what if it didn’t have to be that way? Imagine a city where instead of sitting in traffic, you walk to the light rail station, pull out your book, and read for the next half-hour. It’s a win-win, reclaiming time in our days and reducing pollution and carbon emissions.
We could make getting around quick, convenient, and easy, with a fleet of buses, light rail, and subways, and power them all with electric energy, not an engine running a controlled explosion uncomfortably close to our bodies. Getting cars off the road reduces traffic, cuts pollution, and grants us the freedom to enjoy our journey.
In this world, the often grueling commute becomes an opportunity rather than a chore. Freed from the stress of driving in heavy traffic, you can spend your time as you wish: reading a book, answering emails, or simply enjoying a moment of calm before the day's tasks.
A Green New Deal is not just about the environmental benefits. It's also about freeing up our time, fostering social interactions, and building vibrant, interconnected communities.
Now, let's imagine a weekend getaway. Instead of hours on a crowded highway, kids asking “are we there yet?” every five minutes, imagine boarding a high-speed train. Picture large, comfortable seats, meal service, and stunning views from wide windows as the landscape whizzes by. You're not worrying about traffic, road rage, or wear and tear on your car. As the cityscape turns to countryside, you're catching up on your favorite show, reading a book, or simply relaxing and enjoying the scenery. This is the future of inter-city transit — efficient, enjoyable, and environmentally friendly.
The high-speed rail networks in Europe and Japan have shown us the potential of this mode of transit. All we need to make this a reality across the United States is the political will. We already spend 200 billion dollars subsidizing highways every year. What if instead we funneled government dollars into local jobs constructing high-speed rail lines, then maintaining and operating a fleet of trains?
The transition to high-speed rail can also have cascading benefits for the cities connected by these lines. With more people able to commute longer distances comfortably and efficiently, we could see a revitalization of smaller cities and towns along these routes.
Of course, cars will still have their place, especially in spread out rural areas. For many, the personal vehicle is a symbol of freedom, and we don't envision a world where they no longer exist, despite what you may have heard on Fox News.
With the majority of our daily commuting and travel handled by a robust mass transit system — and far fewer cars on the road — driving can become a more pleasant experience, free from today's frequent traffic jams.
The cars of our future are electric cars: quieter, cleaner, and far more efficient. The government has a critical role in making electric cars practical: building infrastructure and funding the transition.
Ensuring that electric charging stations are as regular as gas stations are today, so nobody runs out of juice on the highway.
Providing greater subsidies and incentives to manufacturers and consumers, speeding up the transition from gas-guzzlers to EVs
Creating new jobs in manufacturing, infrastructure development, and maintenance.
Just as the initial move towards personal cars reshaped our cities and societies, a shift towards mass transit — with electric vehicles filling the gaps- can do the same, but this time, prioritiizing the health of our planet and communities. We can create a world where driving complements a broader, more sustainable transit system, without polluting our air or endangering our future.
With so many cars off the road, we get to do something truly magical. Take a moment to consider just how many parking lots there are in America, ugly, grey, hot spaces good for little else than housing our cars for hours at a time. We can reclaim that land (just like we reclaimed our commute), transforming parking lots into parks, farmer’s markets, swimming pools, and more — spaces for community, recreation, and nature.
These new green community spaces would become a symbol of the drastic, positive change that we kicked off when we started to prioritize people and the environment over cars. It's time to imagine a future where our cities are filled with communal green spaces, not parking spaces.
Taken on their own, each individual element above is nice, but insufficient. It’s how they combine that can create a seamless, integrated transit system. We can replace the disjointed, car-centric system we have today with a people-focused transit ecosystem, where one part of your life transitions seamlessly into the next.
You wake up, and after getting ready for the day, walk your kids to school, greeting your neighbors along the way. One block away, you hop on the light rail, and head to work. You don't worry about traffic because there isn't any. You don't worry about parking because you don't need to.
When you get off, you're right in the heart of a bustling, pedestrian-friendly downtown. There's no noise or pollution from cars, just people and birds. Maybe you grab a coffee at a local café before heading into your office, or walk around for ten minutes looking for the lunch place that calls to you.
When you’re done with work, your journey home is just as seamless. No more coordinating pick-up times at school; your kids walk home, and feel independent and secure in this transformed community.
When you arrive home, you're not exhausted from battling traffic or the stress of the commute. You're ready to enjoy your evening. Maybe you and your family decide to take a leisurely bike ride through the community, greeting neighbors and stopping at the local park that replaced the old, unsightly parking lot. Or maybe you decide to explore a new restaurant in a neighboring district, hopping on the light rail for a quick and stress-free journey.
On the weekend, you and your family take a high-speed rail to a city you've never visited before. You enjoy the scenic views along the way, making the journey just as enjoyable as the destination.
You're not just imagining a greener, more efficient transit system. You're imagining a world where our neighborhoods are more connected, our commutes are less stressful, and our cities are more liveable. A world where we've not only reduced our carbon emissions but also improved our quality of life.
This vision might seem ambitious, and it is. But with the right investments and policies, with the power of technology and community involvement, and with the collective will to prioritize people and the planet, it's a vision that's entirely within our reach.
We can reshape our world to be a more vibrant, living place. And in doing so, we can take a significant step towards tackling the climate crisis, creating a sustainable future for us all.
It's time to get on board with the Green New Deal for Transportation. It's time to imagine and work for a better future. Because the journey to a sustainable future is a journey we must all take together.
The Green New Deal for Transportation is more than a policy proposal; it's a vision of a future where our neighborhoods and our travels are as pleasant and efficient as possible. It’s a vision of towns and cities transformed into better places to live, work, and play. And hey, while we’re at it, it’s also a critical step in tackling the climate crisis.
This future is not a pie in the sky utopia. It’s a reality in so many cities around the world already.
In cities like Berlin or Tokyo or Stockholm, efficient transit has become a cornerstone of their urban fabric. Modern and reliable trams, buses, and trains transport citizens quickly and comfortably to their destinations, making car ownership more of a luxury than a necessity.
Consider the Dutch concept of "woonerfs," residential areas where pedestrians and cyclists have priority over cars, where speeds are limited to ~12 miles/hour. Picture your neighborhood transformed into a woonerf, picture people taking the streets back from the tyranny of cars, picture a safe environment for kids to explore and play. And with all of us walking around our neighborhoods, imagine regaining the social cohesion we’ve lost. We live lives trapped in our cars, cut off and isolated from the people around us.
If you bump into someone while driving, that’s a car accident. If you bump into someone while walking, who knows? Maybe it’s your meet-cute.
This vision would require investment, planning, and a commitment to change, but the result could transform not just our neighborhoods, but our society. Let's work together to make this dream a reality.