Transportation vs. The Privilege

At the height of World War 2, President Roosevelt challenged the country to pass a Second Bill of Rights. Among these were the right to a job, the right to compete in a fair market, and the right to health care.

Had Congressional Democrats all agreed with FDR that health care was a right going into last year’s debate, I’m sure they would have finished the bill sooner and with a much stronger plan for assuring every American had a reasonable expectation that they could get help if they got sick. It would have forced opponents to defend a health care system that denied Americans help, and why money should be made in guaranteeing somebody’s rights. Instead we got a debate about death panels.

When we establish something is a right, like we have with free speech and gun ownership, we then only debate about how best to assure those rights exist. We often talk about the boundaries that are appropriate, if at all, on speech and possession of weapons, but you’ll rarely find people suggesting we completely deny either without merit.

In that light, I believe transportation as a right. As my old man told me, when you get trapped somewhere, that’s when you lose your freedom as an American. The right to get away-from your home, a job, the neighborhood-on any day or an emergency is essential to life, liberty, and happiness.

Once we’ve established that movement is a right, we can then debate how to ensure people can move around. Taxpayer funding for transportation projects and programs must then guarantee that as many people can move with the best flexibility as possible. Currently, we spend a lot of money building roads and infrastructure to allow cars easy movement throughout our communities.

There’s one problem with that: Driving is, and always will be, a privilege. You learn that when you get a driver’s license. We know that The Privilege can be taken away if you use it irresponsibly.

Yet we fund driving as if it’s a right. In the last major federal transportation bill, we gave road building $4 for ever $1 we gave to transit and other alternatives. If we’re focused on maximizing movement for the most people, we’d invest more in walking, bicycling, transit-all more cost-effective per capita in moving people-and building things closer to where we needed to go for services and goods.

If movement is a right and how we make choices in how we exercise it, then we must face the fact that our options have been severely limited by the auto & oil industries, which long ago maliciously derailed and dismantled their competition. Most modern neighborhoods keep us trapped into using The Privilege to get around. Many Americans are tethered to our vehicles to do everything, and have no choice but to spend time circling for parking, repairing and fueling our vehicles, and limiting our other choices and use of time.

Establishing transportation as a right, and taking action to protect it, cannot wait much longer. Government budgets are increasingly hamstrung by the amount of money they spend facilitating The Privilege. Some cities low on funding are letting roads crumble and not looking back. Others’ continued devotion to The Privilege sucks up money that could be spent delivering other key rights and services, not to mention better peoplemover systems like buses, streetcars and intra-city rail.

Likewise, businesses depend on maximizing movement for customers to show up or to deliver things to buyers. Trapped people can sometimes shop, but with options limited by fidelity to The Privilege, business won’t be able to thrive if there’s no roads to deliver things on or too much traffic to overcome.

A few brave communities have begun taking bold steps to ensure that movement is a right, facilitated by a smarter use of transportation money to provide better options. In these communities, the debate is happening. What will it take it nationwide, as we seek to remain competitive deep into the 21^st Century?

FDR sought his Second Bill of Rights to establish a new foundation for prosperity and growth after we faced a major economic downturn and wars on multiple fronts. With a similar predicament on our hands, this rare second chance seems like the perfect time.