The Road to Prosperity: Real-Time Approaches to Economic Improvement

People have been driving about 1% less per year for the last 9 years. What can public-private partnerships for transportation alternatives do to stoke this fire?

1 minute read

January 26, 2014, 11:00 AM PST

By Hazel Borys


"Across America, too many people believe that 'no one will get out of their cars.' The newest data based on the American Community Survey, shows 'it ain’t so,' even for small cities and their surrounding areas. The national trend in the US is a drop of almost 1 percent per year in passenger vehicle-miles-traveled or VMT, driven by the high price of transportation generally and more specifically related to the need to drive, a function of the increased distance between people and what they do. People have been driving about 1% per year less for a while now."

Scott Bernstein, President of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, goes on to use Doña Ana County, New Mexico, as an example of the road to prosperity. Warning, this long thought piece is not an easy read, but sets out to invoke some heavy lifting for transportation types and PPPs.

2013 saw the 9th consecutive year of a drop in total vehicle miles traveled per household

Monday, January 20, 2014 in PlaceShakers

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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