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North Carolina’s transportation policies are in trouble. An increase in world demand for concrete and steel has driven up construction costs by 45% over the last three years. Worse, current NC Department of Transportation spending is heavily skewed to roads with just 3% of spending on public transit. Finally, transportation accounts for over 30% of our greenhouse gas emissions. Even with cars getting cleaner, curbing global warming will require us to reduce, not increase, our average car commuting distances.

Enter North Carolinians for Transportation Reform and Modernization (NC TRAM), a broad coalition of progressives and other environmental groups promoting a better transportation future for North Carolina. On March 24, NC TRAM released a list of five principles that we think should guide NC in building a new transportation future. The five principles are: (1) prioritize projects using objective standards, not political patronage; (2) build different kinds of projects, not just roads; (3) dedicate a larger share of spending to maintenance; (4) link transportation and land use planning; and (5) pay for our transportation system fairly, not by raiding education and health programs or by privatizing our public roads.

As the 2008 session approaches, state leaders are already putting together legislative proposals. Some leaders want more money for transportation, even at the expense of education and health spending. Others want to use taxpayer dollars to launch toll roads. Some want NC to borrow huge sums for new transportation projects. There is a better way.

Please join NC TRAM in sending legislators this message: let’s invest in maintenance, but not pour a lot of new money into the NC Department of Transportation until we know it will build the projects we really need—a lot more public transit, and a lot fewer new roads—and without the backroom politics that has long dominated road-building in NC.

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