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At
this time of year across the Northern Hemisphere
social, cultural and religious organizations are
wrapping up parties, festivals and celebrations
that have their roots in the Winter Solstice. This
is a time when groups with a religious, spiritual
or supernatural focus consider the roles, powers
and existence of deities and anti-deities. The
past year has been scared by controversy and
bloodshed over the existence, intelligence and
supremacy of various deities. As luck would have
it, citizens have a definitive test for the
existence of the arch anti-deity (aka, the Devil).
The current legislative process in the
Commonwealth of Virginia of is proof positive of
the Devil at work. Not only does the annual
legislative charade waste millions of person-hours
on useless activities and counterproductively
stroke the egos of participant politicians, it
distracts earnest, hard working citizens of all
denominations. For citizens concerned about the
present trajectory of civilization, the current
legislative process insures they can do little to
create a functional and sustainable future. (See
End Note One.)
What is on the horizon
for the 2006 Devil’s Dance? For some time it was
widely speculated that the 2006 legislative
session was going to be “all about finding money
to spend on transportation facilities.” Now
there are rumors that so many groups and interests
are at cross purposes that no significant changes
in transport funding will occur. That would be the
best one could hope for given the real causes of
growing immobility. Participant Beware! This
prediction of “no action on transport money”
may be just a rumor spread by one group to
dissuade opposition groups from continuing to
sharpen their knives. The Devil is at work in
either scenario.
Make no mistake: The
rapidly growing Mobility and Access Crisis, along
with the related Shelter Crisis have a profound
negative impact on prosperity, stability and
sustainability for all citizens and their
organizations.
We
outlined what must be addressed if mobility and
access are to be improved in “Transportation in
the November Election,” July 11, 2005. The potential of laying out a comprehensive
strategy to improve mobility and access was
avoided by all the major party candidates in the
November election, so what is the prospect that
the legislature will do any better?
The legislative process has fundamental structural
problems which will condemn its efforts to no more
than another Devil’s Dance:
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If democracy is to work, the governance structure
must reflect the economic, social and physical
reality of contemporary civilization. If delegates
and senators are to represent citizens they must
be elected from districts that mirror the organic
components of functional human settlement. This
means they must be identified with and speak for
functional villages that comprise Balanced
Communities in sustainable New Urban Regions and
Urban Support Regions.
-
If three-legged democracy is to work, the
legislative leg must join the administrative and
judicial branches as full time activities. The
only justification for mini-legislative sessions
is that they do less harm if there is a limited
time in which to cause trouble. And who is “in
the details” of every legislative effort?
The core substantive problem with the legislature
thrashing around looking for money for transport
is that no one can intelligently or
comprehensively address the question of how to
spend money without answers to higher priority
questions:
The
really important questions do not relate to what
citizens think they “want,” they relate to the
best allocation of resources to provide the
mobility and access that all citizens must have (aka
“need”) to achieve prosperity, stability and
sustainability.
To address these
issues citizens must evolve a true democracy and
an enlightened market.
Transportation/mobility/access questions cannot be
just what those at the top of the economic food
chain think will make them the most money in the
shortest amount of time.
If we are to
have a functioning democracy, the Mobility and
Access Crisis and the Shelter Crisis must
addressed in ways that reflect the needs of all
the citizens. “Trickle down” does not work in
either transport or shelter.
A core
cause of the problems with the current legislative
process is that it mirrors a flaw in the economic,
social and physical underpinnings of contemporary
society as a whole. In a culture driven by short
term economic competition, no one is willing to
pay for answers to long-term or society-wide
needs. Agencies and institutions pander to
short-term “wants.” The two-party political
process has evolved to prosper by serving the
short-terms “wants” of those at the top of the
economic food chain. The consumption-based market
is driven by whatever citizens can be convinced to
buy, especially things that promise to be fun,
entertaining and exciting. Analysis of Internet
traffic documents beyond a doubt that the key
drivers of the economy are sex and money.
With respect to transport/mobility/access what
people say they want is an easy way to get to
work, services, recreation and amenity. But this
“want” comes after they have collectively made
location decisions that preclude the desired
mobility and access. They made these decisions
because of short-term market incentives and
inadvisable government subsidies that drive the
agglomeration of the present settlement pattern.
They thought they were making a wise decision, but
they were not. This is especially true in the
context of growing energy supply constraints and
rising per capita consumption. (See End Note
Three.)
In “Open Letter,” March
29, 2004, we called for Fundamental
Change in the way four specific economic and
environmental leaders address the legislative
process. We outlined a way they could take the
first step. Based on data released over the last
21 months, the indicators for their core
concerns -- the Bay, the Countryside, housing
and economic prosperity for the total population
in the region and, of course, mobility and
access -- have all declined. In the nearly two years since then, it appears
all have been too busy pushing their own agendas.
The hand of the Devil?
So, what
is a rational response to the prospect of the 2006
legislative session? Since little of value will be
done in the next 60 days or more, it seems like a
good time for a sabbatical. It will give us
time to wrap up some projects and focus on the
sort of issue raised in End Note Three.
Have a great New Year and watch out for a fellow
with a pointy black beard.
--
January 3, 2006
End
Notes
(1)
Those looking for The Shape of the Future’s
annual end-of-the year critique of Mainstream Media
will find plenty of fodder in the columns from the
past year including those on Babble,
Babel and the
Postscript.
(2)
One way to get a perspective on the futility of
looking for money to solve the Mobility and Access
Crisis is to consider a recent conference on
public-private partnerships as a vehicle to spend
that money. According to the conference brochure
“the Public-Private Partnership Forum: Exploring
Transparency, Risk and Accountability and the Use
of Eminent Domain, Finding the Balance, Getting it
Right” was designed for Legislators and Policy
Makers, Elected Officials, Municipal Leaders,
Academia, Attorneys, Community & Economic
Development Executives, Developers and Road
Contractors, Engineering Companies, Lobbyists and
Press.
This conference addressed a
number of topics that need to be considered in the
context of solving mobility and access
dysfunction. It would be good to get the issues on
the agenda aired. There was an impressive list of
speakers on the agenda and the conference was
intended to provide answers to guide the
establishment of partnerships to carry out
transportation projects for which the upcoming
legislative session may generate funding. But let’s get first things first. Let’s answer
first-order questions before we answer fourth-,
fifth- and sixth-order questions.
There
might be an equally important conference on the
optimum radius and tread width for tires on VDOT
trucks, but first let's find out where we want
those trucks to go, what we what to do with those
trucks and under what conditions. Before that, we
need to know if we even need trucks for VDOT to
meet its mission goals.
The National
Capital Subregion is marching toward the
implementation of a system of Hot Lanes built by
public-private partnerships before anyone has even
considered what this will do to existing human
settlement patterns, much less whether it will
support the evolution of functional and
sustainable patterns and densities of land use.
(3)
Per capita consumption in your region and in the
Commonwealth provides important insights on the
issue of mobility and access. There is a lot of
talk of the “Global Economy” being a good
thing, but what it really means is that we cannot
answer mobility/access questions for the richest
20 percent of the world’s six billion citizens
who live in the First World. Based on information
gathered for PROPERTY DYNAMICS less than five
percent of those in the United States are actually
prospering under the current system as gauged by
income (prosperity), safety and security
(stability) and health/consumption
(sustainability). This will be the topic of
future columns.
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