Chapter 13 of William R. Black's Sustainable Transportation, entitled "A Contimuum of Policies" is the first chapter the book's section on policy in sustainable transportation. The chapter begins, as always with a quote, this time from Daniel Sperling who in 1995 said, "Government policy toward motor vehicles is fragmented and increasingly misguided, resulting in small environmental benefits being gained at exorbitant cost." While I agree that there are certainly some bad decisions being made in policy throughout the country, and the world at various different levels, it is not always the fault of those in charge. For example, the lowest level of policy makers for transportation are towns, cities and counties. These policy makers can affect the level of sustainability in transportation by controlling land use by zoning, controlling some aspects of public transportation and controlling parking. Some of these actions can take years to take place and can sometimes even conflict with themselves. It is also hard for even a large county to properly make decisions as they run on what are usually small budgets and little resources and can not make effective changes.
For many states, the same problems that have plagued local municipalities and counties have made it difficult for states to make major changes. While they do have more resources and more power, states still have small populations relative to the rest of the nation and thus, can not make effective changes. This seems to hold true for every state, except for California according to Black. Because Southern California has had such horrible air quality problems since it's initial population, California has been one of the only state to pass effective and sustainable clean air and emissions acts and has essentially set itself to be the standard for the rest of the country. California has even recently continued toward a more sustainable transportation future and has become the first state to legalize computer driven cars on the road. Even though there are none on the commercial market, this will allow for the research to be completed.
I think for the rest of the country, and the world to properly begin to make sustainable transportation solutions, many aspects of how the state of California runs it's policy making should be studied and used elsewhere. What do you think?
For many states, the same problems that have plagued local municipalities and counties have made it difficult for states to make major changes. While they do have more resources and more power, states still have small populations relative to the rest of the nation and thus, can not make effective changes. This seems to hold true for every state, except for California according to Black. Because Southern California has had such horrible air quality problems since it's initial population, California has been one of the only state to pass effective and sustainable clean air and emissions acts and has essentially set itself to be the standard for the rest of the country. California has even recently continued toward a more sustainable transportation future and has become the first state to legalize computer driven cars on the road. Even though there are none on the commercial market, this will allow for the research to be completed.
I think for the rest of the country, and the world to properly begin to make sustainable transportation solutions, many aspects of how the state of California runs it's policy making should be studied and used elsewhere. What do you think?
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