America is the most mobile society in history, but our
transportation system is on the verge of collapse. Traffic
congestion is today five times greater than it was 25 years ago,
yet many transportation plans and projects are making it worse. As
Randal O'Toole reveals in Gridlock, the prime causes of
our ailing system are a government transportation planning
philosophy whose primary goal is to diminish auto use-hence,
personal mobility-in combination with federal budget incentives
that perversely encourage transportation planners to increase
congestion. As a result, the automobile which is accessible to
almost every family in the nation and provides unparalleled access
to better housing, low-cost consumer goods, a choice-driven
affordable life, and freedom-is being deliberately forced off the
transportation grid by the expensive "solution" of little-used
high-speed trains and urban transit lines.
Not only is this costly, illustrates Gridlock, it won't
even accomplish the goals of saving energy and protecting the
environment. "We can spend tens or hundreds of billions of taxpayer
dollars on transportation projects that sound good but really only
serve a small elite," writes O'Toole, "or we can restore a
user-fee-driven system that will continue to improve personal
mobility and reduce transportation costs for generations to
come."
Gridlock presents a wide range of innovative ideas and
policy recommendations for creating an effective transportation
system-improvements that will increase our mobility and pay for
themselves, whether it's cars, buses, planes, or trains. At the
center of O'Toole's solutions are three core principles: those who
use transportation facilities should pay for them; negative effects
should be dealt with in a cost-efficient manner; and new
technologies that will increase mobility at a low cost must be
embraced. In Gridlock, Randal O'Toole brings energetic and
unconventional thinking to transportation strategies that have,
until now, only driven us into the breakdown lane.
