Transportation Reform: Enabling Communities to Grow Smarter

Community leaders desire to grow their communities in order to expand job opportunities, increase public services, and improve the quality of life for their citizens. However, sometimes the process of growing takes place without consulting citizens affected by growth and ends up damaging the character of the community. Planning for adequate transportation infrastructure is one example of where communities can provide for growth without sacrificing quality of life, but why is that seldom the case in North Carolina?
The "Good Roads State" nickname may be a misnomer today; two-thirds of our roads are currently in poor shape, and we are ranked 35th in the nation for bad roads . In addition, road capacity has increased by about 15% over the last decade. In this same time period, the number of vehicle miles traveled in North Carolina grew twice as fast as the population . In short, we are driving more because jobs, housing and services have grown farther apart.
Transportation infrastructure decisions are made by the state with little local participation. North Carolina's Highway Trust Fund (HTF) prioritizes new road building, with an overall aim to move vehicles and goods in a more efficient way. Yet because transportation and land use planning are rarely coordinated, this approach inadvertently guides development in a sprawling fashion, and the long-term effects on individual communities and citizens are unintended and sometimes overlooked.
Transportation infrastructure priorities should be determined by local communities. Land use and development decisions should guide transportation decisions, and should include maintenance and mobility choices such as walking, bicycling, and transit systems, and other high occupancy vehicles uses.
An underutilized tool such as community visioning frequently results in the desire to integrate a range of daily activities-commercial, social, educational, recreational, and housing opportunities-so that reliance on automobiles can be reduced, mobility choices expanded and overall quality of life can be enhanced. This “smart growth” approach to community development aims to integrate citizen planning with transportation, land use, housing, environmental protection, economic development, and sound public health outcomes.
In order for communities to maximize their transportation investments, and in realize the benefits of smarter growth, the following must be achieved:
1) Community-based visioning and planning that identifies overall interests and transportation infrastructure priorities;
2) Greater responsiveness and funding flexibility by the state in meeting local needs;
3) More private/public/non-profit partnerships for innovative financing solutions; and
4) Better coordination of transportation and land use planning and implementation at all levels of government.

-Cara Crisler, NC Smart Growth Alliance & member of the Citizens for Transportation Alternatives