Great Lakes Green Pages

As Cleveland and other cities were really in their hayday, people lived in cities. Tight urban communities with dense neighborhoods. The city was served by trolley, train, and rail. It was simply the way to get around. Every neighborhood had access to all the things that you might need. You had a local grocer or two. You bought the fuel for your heat within walking distance. Luxury goods were a little less common and you might have to make that special trip to buy new fabric or a piece of furniture. Many relied on catalog or other delivery services to get the non essential goods that they needed. Things changed with the introduction of the automobile. we could drive to get the goods we needed, no need to wait for someone else to bring us the things we wanted.

WWII took a huge toll on America, but it also galvanized this country and changed the way we looked at the world forever. Many of our adult males were killed, and those who returned from the war spawned the “baby boomer” generation. With so many men gone, women began to work in jobs traditionally held as “men’s work” and Rosie the Riveter changed the way we looked at women in the working class. With Eisenhower elected president, we began the most massive investment in roads and infrastructure in history. Seeing how effectively the Germans were able to move their tanks and troops using the Autobahn, we invested in the Interstate to promote travel and commerce. The unexpected side effect, however, was urban flight. Rather than investing more money in our cities, we spent our tax dollars on suburbs. Cities became a place to work: dirty, gritty, seedy places to work and play, but not the place to raise a family. This decline continues in some cities today. The result is a crumbling of American roads that feed these cities, due to decreases in our tax base, while at the same time, traffic using these roadways has continued to increase as more people live farther away from the urban centers in which they work.

In America, we have 4 million miles of roads. That is enough to circle the globe 160 times. Americans drive 3 trillion miles every year. And we can’t keep up. Cleveland may not be seeing the gridlock and traffic snarls that are the daily grumble of New Yorkers or residents of Seattle and LA, and we should count our blessings. In fact, on average, most Americans spend 44 hours a year sitting in traffic. Worse still, the roadways that we are sitting on are not in great shape. In fact, some 33% of our roadways are listed in mediocre to poor condition. And it is getting worse. When we built most of these roads, they were meant to last about 50 years. Today some two thirds are 40 years old or older. That means that in the next decade, our problems are just going to get worse.

Clevelanders know first hand the issues that we face. Commuters are dealing with the eventual shut down of I-90, as our major bridge across the Cuyahoga is in sad shape. If you live in Tremont, then you know the impact that local retailers and restaurateurs are feeling, as their on ramps are being closed off. This story is all too familiar around the country. The main E-W roadway in St Louis (I-64), could no longer be safely patched and has had to be completely closed and rebuilt. The economic impact on our country as we can no longer efficiently move goods from city to city is resulting in untold loss. Efficient transportation in other countries like China, only adds to the attractiveness of relocating manufacturing to these places.

What do we do? First, we need an injection of capital into our railways and roadways. In order to make our roads ready for the growth that we all want in this country, an investment in our transportation systems is necessary. Furthermore, we need to start rethinking the commuter model. We need to start returning to the cities that we work in. We need to make public transportation efficient, reliable, and attractive to the masses. We need to make the tough choices in order to make living and working in the same town a viable option. I remember being at a public meeting for the Port Authority as it discusses it relocation options and redevelopment of the waterfront. It amazed me that no one was interested in improving the public transportation to downtown or the waterfront. At the same time, there was applause when one resident demanded we provide free parking in downtown. This is the kind of mindset that has put us in the situation we are in today.

Like most Americans, we were a two car family. There were only the two of us, yet we felt we needed to each have our own car. As we started our business and no longer had to commute, we sold one of our vehicles. As sustainability became our mantra, we continue to reduce our travel. We drive less. We combine trips. We spend more time in our own neighborhood and shop within walking distance when we can. Surprisingly, this is becoming easier and easier. We buy a tank of gas every 3 weeks or so. This may not work for everyone, but until we strive to go back to the model of dense urban neighborhoods and public transportation, we are only going to add to our problems with our roadways. Rethinking commuting not only makes good economic sense, but environmental sense as well. Hybrids and electric vehicles are going to have a huge impact on our CO2 output, but these cars are not cheap. The average gallon of gas produces about 14 pounds of CO2. Cleveland has about 450,000 residents. If each resident drove about 15 less miles a year, that would result in a ball park figure of 2000 tons of CO2 emissions every year. Now imagine the savings we went back to living in our cities and taning public transportation….