Transportation Progression

Japan may have inadvertently sounded a cautionary end to the General Motors highway model system from the 1939 World's Fair, which spawned broad infrastructure to grow the world's automotive business into the late 21st century. It now seems odd that none of the pole position cars in the top automotive ranks are any longer American, when the United States was once home base with the likes of Henry Ford and others.


Outsiders can easily see both GM and Ford sales flagging, looking backwards with their retro models and around at foreign partnerships to find a new basis to lure consumers in for a ride. No doubt, the Japanese automakers have taken their massively compressed markets to discover new angles of efficiency missing in the U.S. car legacy.

Shifting Gears
Boris Puskarev, a previous vice president of research and planning for the Regional Plan Association, a private planning organization stated, "There's nothing wrong with very high density as long as you can take care of the transportation design." Larry Foutz, a previous planner with Southern California Association of Governments once asserted that unless commuting habits change, the 10-lane freeway will need 11 new lanes each way. Fortunately, carpool lanes helped somewhat improve the transit mix. No less, parking-lot commutes are common.


Lengthening commutes exact an emotional toll as most locations continue to add more users each day. In the San Francisco Bay Area, snarled traffic regularly adds up to a total backup of some 170 miles. Transportation analysts say as long as people cling to low density living design, traffic will load up bumper-to-bumper on many highways 12 or more hours a day. Salvation for an improved vision exists in that people are adaptable and some employers have bought into telecommuting and staggered work schedules. The question arises: Are car manufacturers adaptable or completely mired in fleeting share and low debt ratings?

Planning Ahead
The possibility of any loss to our oil supply aside, we need to manage new metrics-based solutions to avoid getting blindsided. Today, we import 25 percent of our oil, and the supply chain is weakening. America needs a clear plan, like the one-time 1939 GM World's Fair model, to avoid falling into the crosshairs of a confused state.