“Transportation engineering is a craft, building places is a human endeavor,” said Strong Towns President and Co-founder Chuck Marohn at CMT’s“Transportation in the Next American City” Breakfast on Oct. 9. With more than 100 CMT members and friends in the room, Marohn detailed the misconceived assumptions about transportation infrastructure that have existed for decades and how communities and local leaders need to rethink our investments in transportation in the future.
According to Marohn, with road maintenance liabilities overwhelming federal, state and local budgets, America needs a more strategic approach to transportation, one that allows us to get more while spending less and living better. As our cities continue to evolve and modernize, such a transformed transportation system is possible. The presentation examined a new path to the next transportation revolution.
Marohn stressed the need for local leaders to be leaders – building wealth in communities from the local level versus a top down approach from Washington. He quoted Ernest Rutherford with regards to the unending spending that has occurred since the 1960’s on the highway/roadway system, “We have run out of money. It is time to start thinking.” In addition, the challenge with the monies available including funding to build newer, bigger projects while there are no funds for maintenance of the systems we have. Marohn’s presentation will be available shortly on the CMT website. More information is available at http://www.strongtowns.org/#about.
View Mr. Marohn’s presentation here:
Special thanks to URS for their sponsorship of the CMT Breakfast, CMT board member Len Toenjes for hosting CMT at the MAC, and thank you to the other partners who have helped make Chuck Marohn’s three day visit to ST. Louis possible –
- ISSUES Magazine at Washington University in St. Louis;
- Better Together;
- ULI St. Louis and
- NextSTL.com.