from the Infrastructurist:
Opponents of balanced transportation wasted no time denouncing some recipients of the TIGER II infrastructure grants, announced last week. Noting that less than a third of the $600 million in federal funding went to “road projects,” Marc Scribner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute lamented in the Washington Examiner that much of the money was assigned, instead, to what he calls “livability” projects. The implication is that any infrastructure project that fails to build more roads is latently unpatriotic, because “most Americans prefer to drive”:
Congestion is by far the most serious issue facing our transportation system. Livability measures not only fail to address congestion, they make it worse. More congestion means that people spend more time stuck in traffic, which means a lot of wasted time and fuel. As vehicular mobility declines, so does real livability.
One object of Scribner’s ire is the $16 million grant won by New Haven to convert its Route 34 interstate connector into a pedestrian- and bike-friendly “urban boulevard.” Book after book has been written about the problematic Route 34, but briefly put, New Haven built the highway at the height of urban renewal in response to cries for more roads. To do so the city destroyed the Oak Street neighborhood, permanently altering the community’s social fabric while simultaneously failing to improve traffic flows. .........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/10/25/tiger-ii-proposals-already-under-attack-by-auto-interests/