Gas price talking points: Adapted from Gov. Glendening’s Planetizen op-ed, “Americans demand more and better options.”

•Americans are innovative, smart, creative and resourceful in the face of high gas prices.

But we are running out of options — due in part to our past choices of investment.

•We are riding transit and driving less in huge numbers. People who have access to public transportation use it regularly.

But transit systems are stressed and have been neglected or underfunded for years. And most Americans don’t live in places where they have good access to public transit. B

• We are looking for housing in convenient, walkable locations.

But we are finding that our options are limited because the supply has not met the demand, due to market, policy, and regulatory barriers.

•Oil: It’s not a supply issue: Stay away from talking about supply. It is a slippery slope.

•“We are ready for innovative change, if only our leaders will follow us.”

Americans are innovative and resourceful in the face of high gas prices

Everyone is figuring out ways to cut down on trips, by combining trips and being smarter about how much we drive.

People are driving less and turning to public transportation in an unprecedented shift. Transit systems, underfunded over the years and the victim of neglected maintenance and capital improvements, are now struggling to meet the heavy load placed on them now by people turning to them in record numbers.

FACTS:

  • Insert ridership numbers from your local transit system, if applicable.
  • For example, DC's Metro has had 8 of their top 10 days of all-time within the last few months — numbers that were traditionally only approached with enormous events in the region like Reagan's funeral.
  • Public transportation ridership is at its highest point in 50 years, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
  • Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April 2008 than in April 2007, the first drop in nearly 30 years.
  • Though noteworthy after years of increases, it represents a small reduction per person in total miles traveled. And there is a limited amount of miles that everyday people can eliminate when they don’t have access to transit or other transportation choices.

We’re running out of options

As we try to change our behavior in the face of high prices, we are realizing that our land use and transportation decisions have left us with few options. But we overwhelmingly want our communities to be more walkable and have good transit options. [SGA Polling cited below]

FACTS:

  • Compare home price rise/drops from your transit-accessible close-in neighborhoods to the far exurban ones, if applicable.
  • [Census data, as well as Center for Neighborhood Technology will have good data here.]
  • 90% of Americans think that new communities should be designed so we can walk more and drive less — and that public transportation should be improved and accessible. [SGA/Realtors 2007 survey, available on SGA website.]
  • Only 5% of Americans live within ½ mile of rail-based transit.

We cannot drill our way out of this situation.

Offshore drilling or opening up ANWR will not alleviate the pressure on prices today, tomorrow, or 5 years from now.It could take up to 10 years to begin producing offshore if we lifted the ban today. The amount of crude produced would supply the U.S. for a mere 18 months – not nearly enough oil to affect the price in the international market, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Smart, savvy, resourceful Americans have already realized thatreducing our need to consume oil and gasoline representthe only guaranteed way to reduce our vulnerability to instability in price.

FACTS:

  • Oil that even we produce will still become part of the worldwide oil market, where the price is truly set.
  • If we lifted the offshore ban right now, in 22 years domestic oil production would have increased by only 7 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration.
  • With ANWR? Even at peak production the United States would still have to import two-thirds of its oil, as opposed to an expected 70 percent if the refuge’s oil remained off the market.From the same EIA report.
  • Whether in ANWR or offshore, drilling for more oil and expanding supplies will only make us more dependent on the very thing that President Bush says we are addicted to. Whether the cost of oil will come down slightly or even at all if we expand our own supplies, it is overshadowed by the fact that as demand worldwide grows for oil, any savings will be unlikely.
  • In the amount of time it would take to bring this negligible amount of oil to market, we could build a new rail system in every major metro area. We will also have built millions of new housing units, but the question will be: Will those housing units be more or less dependent on gasoline?

More people arelooking for housing in walkable or transit-accessible places where our budgets won't be held hostage by the price of gas. We need to break down the many policy barriers so the market can meet this latent demand.

We're increasingly looking to buy and rent homes near urban and suburban centers, close to daily needs, in walkable neighborhoods and in locations that are accessible to good public transportation. But the supply of convenient homes in walkable neighborhoods or near transit is not nearly enough to meet the overwhelming demand.

There are many policy barriers that get in the way of the market — preventing it from building what a large, growing share of the public wants.

  • Zoning that strictly separates uses, making it illegal to recreate some of our most beloved neighborhoods where housing and retail are mixed in a walkable environment. [Have a neighborhood near you? Name it here.]
  • [Subsidies for sprawl]

Large houses in partially built subdivisions in distant suburbs have become the real estate equivalent of large cars with poor fuel efficiency. They are becoming difficult to unload for what they were once worth — because no one wants the accompanying fuel bill.

FACTS:

  • The Associated Press reported recently that 78 percent of 900+ Coldwell Banker real estate agents surveyed said that high gas prices were increasing their clients’ desires to live in cities.

WHAT WE SHOULD DO, or language you can incorporate into an op-ed: (outlined in the Transportation for America campaign)

  • Build a world-class rail and transit network that puts us ahead of the rest of the developed world, not behind.
  • Help communities meet the soaring demand for homes in neighborhoods that require less driving and have access to high-quality transportation options;
  • Restore, and then keep our existing highways and public transportation networks in tip-top shape.

We need to make commuting affordable and sensible for all Americans, not just those who can bear the burden of filling up a gas tank with $60 of fuel twice a month. We need to make safe, affordable housing practical for all citizens, so that workers in our towns and cities can find practical homes in good neighborhoods near good jobs.

By building a world-class rail network and spurring economic development, we can provide green jobs, make our communities more affordable and livable, and provide millions of American with a better way to live, work, and play.

By expanding our public transit system and allowing people to go places without driving a car, we can strengthen our economy, help protect the environment, and provide Americans with relief from painful fill-ups at the gas pump.

Our dependence on oil leaves us vulnerable to an unstable global market, contributes to climate change, and prevents us from making our economy more secure into the 21st century.With a reformed transportation program, we can give Americans better, cheaper, and more options for commuting, make our communities safe and convenient for bikers and pedestrians, and break free from our addiction to oil.

With the scheduled reauthorization of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) in 2009, Congress has an opportunity to respond to needs of the American people and create a transportation program that will foster economic competiveness and improve our infrastructure so that it can respond to the demands of the 21st century.

The “vision” from Transportation for America:

21st CENTURY INFRASTRUCTURE, 21st CENTURY JOBS. Create green jobs through greater investment in modernized infrastructure and healthy communities — from highway maintenance and repair to public transit upgrades to green housing and neighborhood construction.

A WORLD-CLASS RAIL SYSTEM.Build a world-class rail network — both between cities and within them — that links our communities, transports people and goods more smoothly and makes our economy more competitive.

FIXING IT FIRSTProtect the integrity of our existing highway and public transportation systems with an aggressive program of rehabilitation and upkeep, and financial support for superior service.

HELPING PEOPLE DRIVE LESSHelp people drive less, avoid unpredictable gas prices, get healthy and stay active in their own neighborhoods through expanded construction of public transit, bicycle routes, and safe sidewalks to walk on.

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITYSet and enforce national transportation standards, but empower local communities to decide what is necessary to meet those goals as well as the needs of its neighborhoods and residents.