Back in the Air Again

The Antiplanner is spending most of this week in Colorado speaking to several audiences about Gridlock. Tonight, at 7 pm, the Antiplanner will speak to the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood.

On Tuesday, the Antiplanner will speak at a Food for Thought Luncheon in Colorado Springs. The doors open at 11:30 am at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.
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On Wednesday, the Antiplanner will return to the Independence Institute (scroll to bottom) in Golden. A reception begins at 5:30 pm and the presentation begins at 6:00. If you are in Colorado, I hope to see you at one of these events.

Where Do We Want to Go?

Note: This is Charles Marohn’s argument in favor of federally mandated transportation planning.

“Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get,” said the Cat.
“I really don’t care where,” replied Alice.
“Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
– Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

The Federal government spends tens of billions of dollars annually on transportation infrastructure. Are we getting our money’s worth? Are we maximizing our return? Are we building on our assets to create a strong, competitive nation? Are we accomplishing anything productive?

These are critical questions. The only way we know the answers is to set objectives, coordinate actions and measure results. In a word: plan.

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Federal Funding & Transportation Planning

Note: This is the second of a series of interblog debates between the Antiplanner and Charles Marohn of the Strong Towns Blog.

Should Congress require cities and states to do transportation planning in order to be eligible for federal transportation funds? Under current law, states and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) are required to do two kinds of plans: long-range transportation plans that look ahead for about 20 years, and transportation-improvement plans (TIPs) that focus on projects that are going to be funded or partly funded in the next year or two.

The Antiplanner has always believed that short-term, mission-specific planning is a necessary part of any program or activity. We plan our days, school teachers plan their lessons, and highway departments plan road maintenance and bridge construction. So I don’t have a lot of objections to TIPs, though I think the legal requirement is unnecessary — it’s going to happen whether the law requires it or not.

But the Antiplanner has always objected to long-range planning. Two years ago, I sat down and read more than 70 long-range metropolitan transportation plans (and if you don’t think that was painful, try it sometime). I found that they all failed to do a good job of setting goals, developing alternative ways of meeting those goals, and fairly evaluating those alternatives.

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