The Sierra Club has named America’s “50 Best and Worst Transportation Projects”
The projects in the club’s report serve, it says, as examples of the “best” and “worst” in transportation investment. They were all still being worked on or recently completed. And they were judged by five criteria selected by the Sierra Club as part of its “Beyond Oil” campaign.
- Oil use impact
- Environmental impact
- Health impact
- Economic impact
- Land use impact
So it’s very specific list put together with a narrow environmental focus. But the club argues that we need more “best”-type projects and fewer “worst”-type projects if we are to achieve some key 21st century goals.
The Sierra Club says that “too often transportation projects undermine the higher national goals of reducing oil consumption, increasing safety, improving public health, and saving local, state or federal government – and citizens – money.”
The environmental watchdog groups points out that, “Because the transportation infrastructure lasts for decades, the impacts of transportation investments are felt for many years to come with huge consequences for America’s ability to move beyond oil.
“The transportation infrastructure we build today will either keep us stranded in our cars and at the mercy of gas prices – a situation that today drains nearly $1 billion from our economy every day to pay for foreign oil – or it can promote transportation choices that reduce our reliance on oil, curb air, water and climate pollution, boost local economies, and improve transportation equity and public heath,” it says.
The Sierra Club Report can be read or downloaded here.
