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- Info
Smart growth, smart transportation: A new program to manage growth in Maryland
| Author: |
Winstead, David L. |
| Date: |
1998 |
| Periodical: |
The Urban Lawyer |
| Abstract: |
Transportation is indisputably one of the significant activities of governments on both sides of the Atlantic. Transportation provides critical personal mobility, lets economies blossom, shapes communities, and contributes to our overall quality of life. At the same time, it imposes harsh environmental and social costs on regions that do not carefully plan their futures. A vision for transportation, accompanied by Smart Growth principles, allow a government to be the master of growth, not the servant. Environmental sustainability cannot be achieved with good transportation planning alone. Without supporting land use, an open public process, and a regional consensus about goals of the development process, transportation cannot achieve sustainability alone. Despite the obvious models being forged in Europe for many decades, Americans did not even understand this simple relationship. These concepts only reached the mainstream of the American "transportation/industrial complex" through the 1991 passage and implementation of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. However, neither ISTEA in its 1991 form, nor the versions currently being considered in the U.S. Congress, really change the dynamics that drive land-use decisions. As an agency using federal funds for projects, we are required to carefully coordinate projects with local governments, but that alone does not guarantee there will be no more sprawl. Congress. is the place for the agenda to be promoted, but not the place for it to be addressed. Sustainable transportation will be achieved at the state, regional and local levels. Smart Growth is just beginning in Maryland, but I hope that in a few years, we will stand as a model for land-use planning on both sides of the Atlantic. |
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