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Climate change has it out for transportation infrastructure, says report

Posted at 5:08 PM on 11 Mar 2008

Climate change is likely to wreak havoc on U.S. transportation infrastructure, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Research Council. Think bridge joints weakened by too-high temperatures, flooded tunnels, shipping disrupted by heavy storms, roads threatened by erosion, and much, much more! Coastal regions are likely to be especially hard hit, as more and more folks move in and demand infrastructure in vulnerable areas. Says report contributor Henry Schwartz, Jr., "The time has come for transportation professionals to acknowledge and confront the challenges posed by climate change and to incorporate the most current scientific knowledge into the planning of transportation systems."

source: Associated Press
straight to the report: Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation [PDF]

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Comments: (3 comments)

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Subtractive Architecture

One of the smartest people in the world living today, my friend Brian Hansen, has taught me about "subtractive architecture". You can create a design by taking things away as well as by building.

Today in the United States we see:

A declining birth rate.
Slowing immigration
Broadband making physical transportation less necessary

To wit, we probably have about 3 times the amount of "infrastructure" than we actually need. King County Washington is a case of transportation saturation. There are now three ways to get cross the sound from Bellevue to Seattle. However, more and more people are moving from Seattle to live in Bellevue and work in Redmond.

The spendthrift and tax hungry governess of Washington periodically (monthly) proposes some egregious tax to rebuild falling bridges. Some of us say -- just get rid of them. Remove the Evergreen Floating Bridge. Turn the Viaduct into a surface street.

All over the country we should be reducing our infrastructure and turning concrete back in to grassland. Return us to the days when a man was the king of his castle -- as in, he owned his home, had money in the bank, and maybe a regular income from a business or investments. These mini-Dukedoms are the answer to conservation.

by jabailo at 8:22 PM on 11 Mar 2008

Most of It is Useless Anyway

Most of the transportation infrastructure in the US is dependant on cheap energy anyway. Time to stop wasting money on roads and highways and start investing in high-speed rail and rapid transit. The US is way behind the rest of the world and is falling further behind all the time.

by racc at 10:28 PM on 11 Mar 2008

Waste is the problem...

It is intuitive that single occupancy vehicles are wasteful.

http://frepubtra.blogspot.com

by socialscientist at 1:40 PM on 13 Mar 2008

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