Transportation & Sprawl

What Does Transportation Have To Do With Sprawl?

Plenty! Enabled and encouraged by the automobile, we have scattered our urban population into the rural landscape. Fueled by new housing developments, suburban strip-malls, office/industrial parks, and the new highways constructed to serve them, green space is being lost at an alarming rate. New roads pushed through greenspace encourage sprawling development in their own right. Sadly, most of this sprawling development is designed for single use - shopping areas for shopping, housing areas for living.

Development breeds highways and highways breed development, all of it dependent upon the automobile. Automobile-dependent development fragments our communities, cutting housing developments off from shopping, schools, and work. Our children are unable to safely bike or walk to school. The cycle continues.

The average American drives more miles than a citizen of any other country.

* Between 1970 and 1990, car ownership and miles driven increased at more than twice the rate of the population. (2) If the U.S. population doubles in the next 100 years as projected, the federal government (the American citizens) will need to invest trillions of dollars in highway infrastructure just to keep pace with the proliferation of automobiles.

* Central Indiana's population will increase 31 percent from 1990 to 2020. Over the same time period, travel time is projected to increase 75 percent unless we reduce our automobile dependency. The cost of travel in Indianapolis would increase from $4.8 billion to $8.3 billion -- almost double. (1).

* The time Indianapolis drivers spend delayed in traffic increased more than 1000% between 1982 and 1997. That is the biggest increase among the 68 cities studied. In 1982, Indianapolis motorists spent 4 hours a year delayed in traffic. By 1997, the figure had swelled to 52. This delay time, 12 minutes a day, ranks 12th of 68 cities studied. That's less than the 82-hour delay for commuters in No. 1 Los Angeles but more than Chicago's 42 hours. (2)

* The average Indianapolis driver wastes 79 gallons of fuel annually, about five car tanks per year, waiting in traffic. At $1.50 per gallon cost for gasoline, that amounts to almost $120 per year.

* Motor vehicles are the single largest source of air pollution. They emit carcinogens, harmful particulates, smog-producing sulfur and nitrogen oxides, and greenhouse gases. Projections indicate by 2010 Hoosiers will travel more than 100 million miles a year. Increasing rate of vehicle miles traveled reduces the air quality benefits from cleaner vehicles and fuels. (3)

What Can You Do?

• Lobby for Land Use Plans that discourage development beyond the reach of existing infrastructure.
• Press for zoning that encourages walkable, mixed-use communities.
• Advocate alternative modes of transportation, such as walking, bicycling, and public transit.
• Fight the construction of new highways unless all other alternatives have been eliminated.
• Support local merchants. Superstores mandate more and longer car trips and pave over green space.
• Educate those around you to the hidden cost of the automobile. Each year Americans invest billions in the auto infrastructure, money that could be more wisely spent on cheaper, cleaner public transportation.
• Attend the Citizens Advisory Committee meetings of the Metropolitan Planning Organization.
• When you do use your automobile, drive a fuel-efficient car, plan trips, and try to share rides.

Contact Information

Central Indiana Regional Transit Alliance (CIRTA)

Includes City and county officials from several central Indiana counties. CIRTA apparently has no web page.

Central Indiana Regional Citizens League (CIRCL)

(317) 920-3460 http://www.circl.org

Sources:
(1) Central Indiana Regional Citizens' League, Land Use Vision Plan 1999
(2) Texas Transportation Institute, Urban Mobility Study 1999
(3) IDEM, Indiana State of the Environment 2000