Opportunities abound for incentivizing/requiring a regional approach to planning – transpo funding has been sort of successful, how about cap and trade legislation that requires local governments to account for and reduce overall emissions related to transportation, development patterns, etc.?

One obstacle is the power that railroad corporations wield over the nation’s rail rights-of-way (the government owns very little track). The Feds need to find creative ways to work with the railroads to either have them provide passenger rail service, or give up rail capacity to accommodate passenger rail. Of course, there are plenty of highways to retrofit with rail, but lots of hills too=$$$

The focus should be on regional, inter-city rail networks – the 500 mile or less trip. Trains can move people and goods WAY more efficiently than cars, buses, trucks or airplanes that’s why you invest in trains rather than highways and bus systems. Trains are the backbone of most developed nations’ infrastructure systems.

All Federal transportation funding should require that projects achieve, or are part of a system that is achieving a 30(bike/walk)-30(auto)-40(transit) mode split, or something close to this. Current Federal funding requirements for arterial road projects require bike facilities.