Draft GPUS Platform Amendment Transportation
Section title: Transportation
Section subtitle: Walking, Biking and Mass Transit
Our position: Greens support expanding mass transit, and the use of bicycles and other alternatives to cars.
Greens support public transportation policies that promote the rapid and widespread expansion of safe, accessible and affordable mass transit options for all segments of society, especially low-income communities and the transit dependent.
Public transportation consists of buses, subways, trolleys and light rail, commuter trains, street cars, cable cars, van pool services, paratransit services for senior citizens and people with disabilities, ferries and water taxies and monorails and tramways.
The lack of widespread public transportation in the United States irrevocably handicaps our nation environmentally, economically and socially. We will not meet our goals as a society, nor our responsibilities as part of the global community, without a fundamental shift from automobile orientation towards the widespread use of public transit.
Public transit has not always been neglected in the United Statea. In the 1920s and 1930s, major cities across the country had light-rail trolley service and mass transit was relatively convenient, cheap, and plentiful. But to make society more automobile and petroleum dependent, a group of large corporations conspired to purchase and dismantle the trolley systems. By the 1950s most of the system was destroyed, after which the nation embarked on a massive, publicly funded construction of the Federal interstate highway system, along with its feeder roads and highways. The result is a nation built around the automobile and highways, rather than around public transit and public transit corridors. Public funds spent towards roads and highways are considered an 'investment', while spending for public transit is considered a subsidy.
Greens believe this must all change.
Increasing the use of public transportation provides greater mobility, access, opportunity and choice; it conserves energy while reducing gasoline consumption, pollution, greenhouse gases and society's carbon footprint; it reduces cost and congestion and saves lives compared to automobile use; it saves money while reducing dependence upon foreign oil and military adventurism, and it creates a basis for more safe, healthy, livable and economically viable communities.
Green Solutions
MORE SAFE SPACE FOR PEDESTRIANS AND CYCLISTS
1. Make streets, neighborhoods and commercial districts more friendly to pedestrians and bicyclists.
2. Increase the amount of native and drought tolerant vegetation in street design.
3. Utilize traffic-calming methods, where the design of streets promotes safer speeds and safer interaction with pedestrians. Create auto-free zones in urban cores.
4. Develop extensive networks of bikeways, bicycle lanes and paths. Include bike racks on all public transit.
5. Maintain free community bicycle fleets, and provide necessary support for cyclists.
MASS TRANSPORTATION
1. Change federal transportation funding from prioritizing roads and highways, to dedicating a majority of funds in support of mass transit, electrification of ground transportation, and non-motorized infrastructure and services.
2. When designing transportation systems, locate public transportation next to jobs and housing, and jobs and housing next to public transportation.
3. Utilize a carbon tax so that the use of fossil fuels pays its real cost, making public transit more affordable by comparison.
1. Develop affordable mass transit systems that are more economical to use than private vehicles.
2. Encourage employer subsidies of transit commuter tickets for employees, funded by government congestion management grants.
3. Use existing auto infrastructure for transit expansion where possible. Light rail should be established in expressway medians through metropolitan high-density corridors.
4. Expand our country’s network of rail lines, including high-speed regional passenger service.
5. Expand inter-city rail lines with a focus on minimizing commercial flights of 1,000 or less. for the exclusive use of passenger trains.
REDUCE ENERGY-INTENSIVE TRANSPORTATION
1. Place a moratorium on highway widening and use the money for mass transit and facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists.
2. Mandate HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes on freeways, and lower toll fees for carpools.
3. Support ambitious increases in motor vehicle fuel efficiency, including the use of hybrid electric designs. Enact a “gas guzzler” tax on new vehicles that get a lower MPG than the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards and offer “gas sipper” rebates for vehicles that get a higher MPG. Schedule an increase in CAFE standards to 60 MPG for cars and 45 MPG for light trucks by the year 2014.
4. Develop and market the conversion of existing used cars and trucks to electric vehicles so that such conversions are cheaper than purchasing new vehicles.
5. Develop and market quick-charging electric batteries or battery exchange stations so that electric vehicles can be used for long-distance travel.
6. Support government procurement of high efficiency motor vehicles.
7. Encourage carpooling programs, car-sharing, ride-sharing networks, telecommuting, and other creative solutions to reduce commuter traffic congestion. We advocate fair buy-backs of the most polluting and least efficient vehicles to remove them from the road.
8. We call for incentives to get long-distance truck hauling off of our highways and on to railways and short-sea shipping routes.
9. Make airports accessible by local transit systems.
10. Reduce air travel.
11. Revitalize and expand rail transport. Support the development of a national high-speed rail system.
12. Increase use of short-sea shipping.
2004 PLATFORM SECTION ON TRANSPORTATION
The Green Party supports a transportation policy that emphasizes the use of mass transit and alternatives to the automobile and truck for transport. We call for major public investment in mass transportation, so that such systems are cheap or free ot the public and are safe, accessible, and easily understandable to first-time users.
We need ecologically sound forms of transportation that minimize pollution and maximize energy efficiency. Surfaces impermeable to rainwater, polluted storm run-off; paved over or polluted wetlands, the heat island effect, air pollution, and acid rain are all directly related to a transportation system run amuck.
Massive subsidies to the auto and fossil fuel industries, as well as an unworkable approach by urban planners, maintain the auto’s dominance of our cityscapes. The present-day approach of upgrading streets to accommodate increased traffic generates new traffic because access is now easier, and people will now take jobs further from their homes or purchase homes further from their jobs. Some people shift from public transit to private cars due to the trip time in cars being shorter. As patronage for public transit decreases, public transit loses funding, becomes less viable, and service deteriorates thus encouraging even more people to use their cars.
To counteract these trends and reduce auto use, the Green Party advocates the following strategies:
Pedestrians and Bicyclists
1. Make streets, neighborhoods and commercial districts more pedestrian friendly.
2. Increase the greenery of streets.
3. Utilize traffic-calming methods, where the design of streets promotes safe speeds and safe interaction with pedestrians. Create auto-free zones.
4. Develop extensive networks of bikeways, bicycle lanes and paths. Include bike racks on all public transit.
5. Maintain free community bicycle fleets, and provide necessary support for cyclists.
Mass Transit
6. Redirect resources that currently go to enhancing auto capacity into expanding human-scale transit options.
7. Develop affordable mass transit systems that are more economical to use than private vehicles.
8. Encourage employer subsidies of transit commuter tickets for employees, funded by government Congestion Management grants.
9. Use existing auto infrastructure for transit expansion where possible. Light rail could be established in expressway medians through metropolitan high density corridors.
10. Include land use decisions in transportation issues, with consideration of the need for mass transit to have a market and be viable, and with attention paid to cross-commuting – the practice of people commuting to a place where they could and should live.
11. Expand our country’s network of rail lines, including high speed regional passenger service.
Automobiles
12. Place a moratorium on highway widening then use the money for mass transit and facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists.
13. Mandate HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes on freeways, and lower toll fees for carpools.
14. Discourage unnecessary auto use by eliminating free parking in non-residential areas well served by mass transit, and establish preferential parking rates for HOV.
15. Substantially increase the taxes on gasoline, but allow some compensation for low income drivers.
16. Support ambitious increases in motor vehicle fuel efficiency, including the use of hybrid electric designs. Legislate a “gas guzzler” tax on new vehicles that get a lower MPG than the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards and offer “gas sipper” rebates for vehicles that get a higher MPG.
17. Schedule an increase in CAFE standards to 60 MPG for cars and 45 MPG for light trucks by the year 2010.
18. Develop and market to the general public fuel efficient cars as well as solar, electric and other non-fossil fuel powered vehicles for local travel. Support government procurement of high efficiency motor vehicles. Electric components of vehicles should not be put “on the grid” while we still have polluting electricity generation sources providing power to that grid.
19. Encourage carpooling programs, telecommuting, and other creative solutions to reduce commuter traffic congestion. We advocate fair buy-backs of the most polluting and least efficient vehicles to remove them from the road.
Air Travel
20. Make airports accessible by local transit systems.
21. Legislate further incremental reductions in airplane noise and air pollution.
22. Emphasize the use of light and heavy rail for freight transportation.
Freight
23. We call for incentives to get long-distance truck hauling off of our highways and on to railways. We favor the removal of any administrative impediments to efficient long-haul freight transport by rail. Time is lost when switching goods from one railroad to another, even when the trains are the same size and gauge, and this waste can be eliminated.
