The Human Scale
Reconnecting America’s first video about the role of walkable, transit-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods
Everybody’s been talking about rising gas prices, our dependence on foreign oil, and how burning fossil fuels hurts the environment – and our bank accounts. But here’s something we rarely hear about: It’s the way that we’re planning and building our communities that’s forcing us to consume more and more oil, robbing us of our precious time, and making life in America unaffordable.
It’s time to rethink the way we use the land around us. We need more options, and not just the ones you’ve been hearing about on the news. Wind, solar energy and biofuels are all important to our future, but they won’t shorten the distances Americans have to travel to get home from work at night, or decrease the traffic that chokes our highways.
Next time you’re stuck going 20 mph in the fast lane, waiting forever to get through a traffic light, or trying to find your way out of a giant concrete parking structure, remember that it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s time for America to rediscover the human scale. It’s time to build communities for people, not cars.”
This is the script of "The Human Scale," Reconnecting America’s first video about the role of walkable, transit-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods in addressing the enormous challenges Americans face today. This country’s national transportation policy has barely changed since the 1950s, when gas was 20 cents a gallon. The world today is a very different one and it demands a 21st century transportation policy. Reconnecting America is a core partner in the Transportation For America campaign, www.t4america.org.
Posted September 16, 2008
