CART's Transportation Strategy for Kentucky and Southern Indiana
Transportation investments affect most aspects of our lives: Land use, Air Quality, Accessibility and Livability are the most obvious areas of impact. The oil consumed by transportation - over 13 million barrels a day - is impacting our global climate and bringing us into international conflict. The immanent peak of world oil production signals a radical shift in world energy economics which will cripple those economies which have not prepared by implementing conservation and alternative energy strategies. The United States is the industrial economy most vulnerable to these energy resource depletions.
Because Transportation is the greatest consumer of petroleum (2/3 of US Consumption) it is the area in which we have the most to either lose or gain. Pretending a shift of fuel types will address this issue is just that - pretense. Other fossil fuels are also in short supply, and consuming them at our current rates ignores global climate issues.
Our nation's road and highway system is also the single largest consumer of tax money outside of the military. The economic outlook for our road system is as grim as the energy picture. Most states and the nation are in serious financial difficulty just trying to maintain our existing roads. This picture only gets worse as petroleum prices rise.
CART has been examining alternatives to highway investments for the last decade. We know which investments allow us to maintain our high quality of life in an energy poor world. These investment strategies have the additional benefits of making our cities safer, cleaner, and more accessible. They also promote the preservation of both rural communities and agricultural lands. They save energy in themselves and promote additional energy savings. And not least important, they reduce maintenance costs while increasing capacity - and this is the key to salvaging transportation economics.
There are a number of new transportation technologies and systems in development. We at CART seek to keep you informed of these developments and the policy initiatives which address or ignore our energy/transportation predicament. These are not popular issues and they do not have simple answers, but they are vitally important. We hope you will support our efforts to bring these issues into public awareness and discussion.