DIRECTIONS FOR POLICY

With the new national awareness of energy as a scarce resource, the question is being raised about how the available transportation energy can be made to go farther. Air pollution in the cities-caused in large measure by cars-adds urgency to this question.

The general thrust of national energy transportation policy needs to be in the direction of encouraging bus and rail transportation between cities and within metropolitan areas, improving car gasoline mileage (or at least stopping the trend toward decreasing mileage), and discouraging excessive car use.

Possibilities for public transit are best in the cities, where people, shops, and other necessary services are clustered together. The need to reduce car use is also greatest in the central cities, for these are the areas which suffer most from auto-created air pollution. (This point is developed further in Chapter Six.)

The prospect for conventional public transit is least likely in suburban and rural areas because people live so far apart. An energy conserving possibility for the suburbs is small vehicle transit. Experiments to test the feasibility of the small vehicle transit need to be supported.

Those who presently have the option of using public transit need to be enticed to do so by better routing and time schedules, lower fares, and better cared for buses, subways, and trolleys. One way some communities have decreased bus commuter time is by creating special bus lanes during rush hours. Others have discouraged car commuters by increasing parking costs in the central city through parking taxes. Use of a mixture of these and other techniques should be encouraged. Bicycling could be fostered if safe bicycle commuter lanes were built and maintained.

"Truth in energy" legislation is needed to provide all car buyers (of used as well as new cars) information about car weight and gasoline mileage.

Government programs aiding transportation should be redistributed with proportionately more funds to the energy conserving modes of travel-public transit, interurban and intersuburban transit and intercity bus and rail service. Additional funds for these purposes should be gotten from taxing cars by weight and from increased federal gasoline taxes. The proposals on cars are spelled out in greater detail in Chapter Eight.

Slowing the rate of growth of energy use in transportation depends in the long run on increasing the gasoline mileage of cars, making public transit more attractive and available, and decreasing dependence on cars. Much more thought needs to be given to how our urban areas can be designed and managed in ways that permit an attractive choice between cars and public transit for local trips.