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sector to meet our transportation needs.
State and local agencies assumed the
exclusive role of building, maintaining,
and operating our system of highways.
That model was sufficient for its time.
But today our challenges are different,
so our approach to those challenges
must also be different. For travel
demand management to be an effective
and successful strategy, its purpose and
approach must be embraced by both the
public and private sectors.
What’s next?
Apart from all these potential solutions,
is “doing nothing” an option? Certainly
it is, but like all the other available
options, it involves a predictable cost.
Doing nothing means that we will
spend more time stuck in traffic. We
will spend more money on wasted fuel,
and we will spend more on just about
everything that’s delivered by trucks.
And we will also face the prospect
of slower emergency response times.
Doing nothing is an option, but it’s not
a cost-free option.
The state’s booming markets are
creating plentiful jobs. Architects,
suppliers, manufacturers and builders
are filling the landscape with the
homes, apartments, offices and stores
to attract workers eager to share in the
state’s prosperity. And those workers
earn the incomes that feed commercial
enterprises, fuel our economy, and
ensure our future.
But without a viable transportation
system, none of that happens. And with-
out system maintenance, none of it can be
sustained. Meeting the challenge we face
will require an all-of-the-above approach.
That will involve more building, but it will
also involve more innovation.
Ginger Goodin, P.E. is a Senior Research
Engineer at the Texas A&M Transportation
Institute, and the Director of TTI’s
Transportation Policy Research Center.
