As a further example of Obama-style central control, a new draft transportation bill introduced in the House of Representatives on June 18 establishes an "Office of Livability" in the Department of Transportation to ensure that we live at the correct urban densities, so that "States and metropolitan areas achieve progress towards national transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals."
These arbitrary "greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals" seem likely to give the DOT absolute control not only over all transportation investments made by states and metropolitan regions, but also over land-use planning and development.
Why is the federal government involved in urban transport planning? Major federal involvement in roads started in 1956 to establish the federal Highway Trust Fund to finance the Interstate Highway System (IHS). That financing system was scheduled for sunset after completion of the IHS. However (surprise, surprise!), although the IHS was completed in the 1990s, the federal financing mechanism remains, and is used to force the states to accept such absurdities as 55 mph speed limits and federal land use regulation in metropolitan areas.
The full story can be found on URL http://tinyurl.com/ldocdn
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment