Transportation Policy is Climate Policy

We need fewer climate tweets and more climate action

I am fed up. Over the past week, we have dealt with unprecedented, historic wildfires fueled by climate change that have choked the East Coast. This would be a great time for our leaders to actually lead on climate change by investing in mass transit. Instead, we are getting platitudes as our elected leaders work behind the scenes to actively make transit worse. And these aren’t Republican climate deniers either. These are governors and mayors representing some of the bluest places in the county, who claim to care about climate change. So, what’s going on here?

A brief overview of climate and transportation

In the transit world, the idea that transportation policy is climate policy is something that is commonly taken for granted. Transportation is the largest source of carbon emissions in the US, responsible for more than a third of total emissions.

I’ve written about how EVs, while better than the status quo, are still insufficient as far as transportation policy goes. You can read the full article here, but one of the main reasons why is that electric cars have much higher lifecycle emissions than even diesel buses, as seen in the graph below.

EVs are far from a panacea to address transportation-related emissions, and there is a clear need for functioning mass transit, particularly in urban parts of the country. You’d expect Democrats who care about climate to understand this basic data and push for policies to address it. But instead, we are getting the opposite.

Democratic leaders are saying one thing but doing another

Democrats are good at saying the right things: “this is an emergency,” “we must take action on climate now,” etc. But some of the actions Democratic leaders are taking are making climate change even worse! Here are some major recent examples of this:

• New Jersey: Governor Phil Murphy is seeking to spend over $10 billion dollars on an urban highway (that will remain bottlenecked), while opposing congestion pricing. Highway expansions increase carbon emissions while congestion pricing would reduce driving and lower carbon emissions. Plus, the overwhelming majority of New Jersey commuters into Manhattan already take mass transit. Supporting the congestion charge and investing in transit would help more people’s commutes, help the climate, and be a far better use of $10 billion. It’s simply impossible to take Murphy seriously when he tweets about the dangers of climate change, as his very own policies are doing so much to exacerbate it.

• New York City: Mayor Eric Adams had a similar tweet about the smoke, saying that New York City is “a national leader on public health and climate action”. And yet, just a day earlier, Adams’ DOT killed a busway on one of the most congested streets in The Bronx after a few businesses complained even though the busway was extremely popular amongst commuters and local residents. As a result, the buses will be slower, commuters will suffer, just so a small number of drivers have slightly more convenient parking. This is part of a pattern of behavior from Eric Adams. He ran for office saying he would build 300 miles of bike lanes and 150 miles of bus lanes. But in his first year, he only built two miles of bus lanes. There’s simply no excuse. It’s not like bus lanes are extremely expensive and difficult to build. Just put some red paint down, put up some signs, and adjust some traffic lights. For whatever reason, be it political cowardice or fear of upsetting business owners, Adams has utterly failed to meet his campaign promises.

• California: Mass transit operations in California are largely funded by the state and fare revenue. However, as fare revenue has declined due to the pandemic, and emergency federal funds are waning, many transit agencies are facing a fiscal cliff where they will have to significantly reduce or completely scrap most service and shut down many stations. Instead of addressing this, Governor Newsom is planning on cutting transit funding. While Sen. Scott Wiener and SF Mayor London Breed are fighting for more transit funding, some Democrats in the state legislature like Phil Ting and Steve Glazer are not supportive. In California, transportation makes up 38% of carbon emissions, which makes this failure particularly glaring.

So, how can we fix it?

It’s extremely frustrating to deal with hypocritical Democratic leaders who do not walk the walk on climate. Thankfully, we can fix it, here’s how:

1. PAY ATTENTION TO STATE AND LOCAL ELECTIONS! This one is in all caps because it really is that important - state and local officials end up making most of the decisions that have the biggest impact on transportation. Especially in blue states and cities, state/local elections can fly under the radar with low turnout and no-name candidates. There are tons of politicians who have been coasting on the status quo and deserve a primary challenge. All this means that means your voice is even more important. Research candidates for state house and city council. Call them up or tweet at them to find out more about their climate policies. Donate to real climate champions who will fight for sustainable transportation and get your friends and family to join as well. Many of these elections can come down to just a few dozen votes.

2. Get involved!: Many decisions on whether or not to build transit improvements like bus or bike lanes are influenced by low-turnout community meetings. Typically, most attendees at these meetings are older, wealthier, and more likely to drive. If you can show up and advocate for sustainable transportation policies, that makes it all much easier for elected officials to build them. On a similar note, call your state legislators and city councilors. Unlike federal politicians that represent hundreds of thousands of people, local officials are more likely to listen to you - just last week I called my state senator to complain about the sorry state of Boston’s transportation and he personally picked up the phone and chatted with me about it.

3. Join advocacy groups. Many cities have transportation advocacy groups such as Transportation Alternatives and Riders Alliance in NYC to TransitMatters in Boston to GreaterGreaterWashington in DC. Additionally, many pro-housing groups such as Abundant Housing Massachusetts, California YIMBY, OpenNewYork, and YIMBY Denver are full of urbanists who care about the connections between dense housing and mass transit.

4. Talk to people about it. I know this sounds simple but so many people are completely unaware of how bad the current transportation status is in the US, with agencies across the country on the brink of fiscal cliffs as pandemic emergency funding runs out. More importantly, I’ve noticed many people just assume that EVs will magically decarbonize transportation without considering the whole picture and how mass transit is a necessary part of the equation.