I just noticed today's Brooks column, in which he endorses "a major infrastructure initiative" that he calls the "National Mobility Project." The goal would be to update our transportation network to reflect the regional growth taking place across the U.S. Brooks' solutions? "[C]ongestion pricing, smart highways, rescue plans for shrinking Midwestern cities, new rail and airplane technologies."
Some of these policies, alas, are more tailored to our current environmental and economic crisis than others. Driving on a futuristic "smart highway" -- in which a computer in your car and signs on the road give you minute-to-minute information on safety, weather, congestion, and available parking -- certainly sounds fun. But those billions would be better spent giving suburbanites and and exurbanites the option of light-rail travel, which most of them currently don't enjoy, and expanding existing mass transit systems. Still, it's good to see Brooks delving into this issue.
--Dana Goldstein
