AASHTO’S Back to the Future

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has recently put up a new video on You Tube promoting "A New Vision for the 21st Century." The eight minute video is designed to elicit support for greater transportation funding for the next 50 years. Unfortunately, the video promotes building 100,000 new lane miles to our highways in the next 50 years.

The real problem with this is that AASHTO is the lobbying group for DOT officials across the country. That the top goal of state DOT's over the next fifty years is to increase our highway lane miles is a real problem. That when AASHTO looks to visionary transportation leaders like the American Trucking Association and the American Automobile Association (no bike rider's or transit groups need apply,) to articulate a vision for the future, there's a problem. Sure, there's passing references to increasing transit and bikeways, but the thrust of this video is DOT's and road advocates advocating for money for more roads.

If this is the future of American transportation, it looks awfully familar.