Over the last two years, Smart Growth America has been working to help a small group of state departments of transportation question and assess the underlying assumptions that lead many states toward giant highway solutions for every transportation problem.
This post is the first of a short series about states that are finding success through what’s known as practical solutions, a way for transportation departments to meet changing demands and plan, design, construct, operate, and maintain context-sensitive transportation networks that work for all modes of travel. Read the second post here.
Most state departments of transportation were created largely for one reason: to implement a highway-building program.
And that’s just what they did for many decades, with sometimes ruthless efficiency, building ever wider and more complicated roadways with funding streams that were increasing year over year as we drove more and the gas tax brought in more money each year. And while advocates certainly raised their voices in objection, the highway-building machine chugged along—as long the money kept pouring in.
Then something started happening in the early 2000’s: Those revenues started flagging because driving declined in a significant way (despite projections by the feds and states that driving would continue on the same impossible upward trajectory into infinity), and the fleet of vehicles became far more fuel efficient.
All of a sudden state DOTs had a fiscal imperative to do more with less and find ways to be more efficient. This was combined with demographic shifts and consumer preferences spurring a move back into downtowns of all sizes, the explosion of growth in new or expanded transit systems, and the rise in the popular consciousness of improving walkability.
And then many states hit a wall.
Why? Because these organizations with highway-building DNA embedded deep in their culture were now being asked to do far more than they once did: Build and/or operate transit, make multimodal connections, focus on moving people instead of just vehicles, make walking and biking safer options, and build things that results in fewer emissions, to name a few.
Or put more bluntly, the same department that delivered this highway below on the left a few decades ago is the same one tasked with delivering the street on the right, perhaps right in front of your house.