Please recommend links to national discussions.
California Futures Network looks at how California can accomodate many millions more people and become more liveable at the same time. If this is to occur, it is necessary to address transportation, city design (mixing commercial and residential buildings), and housing affordability. We need to produce designs that all of us, rich and poor and in-between, can agree to. Start with their links page.
Transportation and Land Use Coalition says, “The Bay Area expects a surge of 1.7 million new people over the next 25 years. We can’t just build a few model communities. We need a regional approach that taps the tremendous potential to focus new growth in walkable communities.” California is especially dependent on Smart Growth NGOs because we have perhaps the weakest central government in the US.
Comments that go beyond praise and nays Steve points out in his comments on mass transit that I ignore enormous subsidies for cars (and airplanes). Innovative Pricing Strategies to Support Transit examines, in part, large subsidies for drivers for road construction and maintenance, parking costs, and pollution — both direct pollution that kills many hundreds of thousands of Americans each decade, and greenhouse gases . The article also examines how the way we pay the cost of driving often confuses drivers as to how much they pay per mile.
