By Sam Hosmer-Quint
The current political climate may seem more divided than ever but Democrats and Republicans are quite aligned when it comes to transportation. An exciting new Sierra Club poll conducted by public policy polling finds that Americans in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions tend to agree about some key environmental problems including air quality and transportation. In Maryland, 81% of voters think that cars and trucks play an important role in generating air pollution and 74% of voters think that air pollution is a serious problem. That’s why it’s no surprise that that 73% are in favor of forming a regional modern transportation system that invests in public transportation, walkable and bikeable communities, and electric vehicles.
These trends are similar across the eleven Northeastern and Mid-atlantic states surveyed. In this region, tailpipe emissions and motor fuels are the #1 problem contributing to climate change emissions. Voters on both sides are tired of waiting in traffic and breathing poisoned air and want their governments to do something about these problems. Gabrielle Gurley from The American Prospect cites the study in their article Transportation Gridlock in the Northeast Bridges over Troubled Partisan Waters, expressing that “81 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of Republicans, and 69 percent independents favor creating some sort of region-wide framework to get the job done.” What this region-wide framework will look like is still being hashed out, but one thing is clear: the car-centric, urban sprawl culture of the 20th century is not going to fly well in the 21st century. The fact that there is broad bipartisan support for common sense investment in public transportation, clean air, and cleaner vehicles, but a lack of interest from public officials means either they don’t know what their voters wants, don’t care, or something else is at play. Gurley, an editor at The American Prospect, recognizes this disconnect when she says “Despite the awareness of a longstanding need for better transit and how vehicle emissions degrade air quality and contribute to climate change, public transportation continues to run on fumes in many of the region’s metro areas and rural communities.”
My mind is drawn to a recent New York Times article by reporter Hiroko Tabuchi titled How the Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around the Country. According to Tabuchi “Early polling here [Nashville] had suggested that the $5.4 billion transit plan would easily pass. It was backed by the city’s popular mayor and a coalition of businesses. Its supporters had outspent the opposition, and Nashville was choking on cars. But the outcome of the May 1 ballot stunned the city: a landslide victory for the anti-transit camp, which attacked the plan as a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money.” The victory for the anti-transit camp came after a well-organized and well-funded campaign by Americans for Prosperity, a group that is financed by the Koch brothers.
Despite the majority of voters supporting an increase in investment in clean transportation, the effectiveness and amount of money spent by the Koch brothers and others to stop specific plans for investment in public transportation has led to slow or no investment. The good news is that the majority of Marylanders and Northeasterners agree with the Sierra Club and other environmental and public interest groups. Now all that is left to do is to get lawmakers and other public officials to listen to their voters. To do that we must raise our voices and make it known that this is not a partisan issue. It is popular on both sides of the table, and despite the Koch brothers efforts to stall public transportation projects, we must invest in clean transportation.
If you are interested in getting involved on our transportation campaign, contact Lindsey Mendelson at lindsey.mendelson@mdsierra.org