Public transit is the missing link in most proposals to curb global warming. It takes a brave American politician to take on the bevy of federal policies that encourage exurbanization and highway construction over urban revitalization, and to tell folks they should drive less and live in denser neighborhoods closer to where they work. Barack Obama hasn't gone there -- but he's come closer than almost anyone else on the national stage. At DCist, Aaron Morrissey has a good rundown of Obama's rhetoric on transportation:
..the Illinois lawmaker has been interested in the topic for years - he petitioned for more efficient transit through low-income areas of Chicago in 2003, and mentioned in May of this year that he's had interest in copying the efficiency of the Northeast Corridor system in the Midwest: "One of the things I have been talking bout for awhile is high speed rail connecting all of these Midwest cities -- Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis." Speaking of Amtrak, Obama is a big supporter. He was a backer of the Lautenberg-Lott Amtrak bill in 2007, which would provide about $11.6 billion to Amtrak over the next six years. Obama's energy and climate stance includes promises to "reform the tax code to make benefits for driving and public transit or ridesharing equal," and to change the "transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account." Obama also opposes a federal gas tax holiday - instead, he believes that high prices of gasoline should "give individuals much more of an incentive to look at trains and mass transit as an alternative."
It would be nice if Obama's talking points here could make the leap into a real policy proposal. So far, no candidate has done that.
--Dana Goldstein
