Who’da thought?

I saw a piece on Fox News Channel this morning that talked about a serious problem being faced by thousands of commuters trying to escape rising gasoline prices–the lack of parking at transit stations.  The report, which did not mention a specific region but identified it as a countrywide program, reassured the audience that the states and municipalities are now looking to expand this parking.

Anyone who works with transit knows what an incredibly oversimplified statement this is.  Are there many plans on the books right now to expand parking significantly in major transit areas?  I know that Connecticut has done its best but is at the mercy of the municipalities who don’t want traffic from out-of-towners clogging their streets.  Many other areas simply have run out of space–and noone wants to build a big nasty garage in a suburban area (although they are coming through on occasion).

And once the parking is in place, can the transit services accommodate the additional passengers?  I know, that certainly depends on the system.  But the irony of cutting transit budgets in states like Florida when riders are flocking to do what millions of dollars have been spent to get them into transit is almost too much to process.  So we are left with carpooling and vanpooling as the only sure-fire methods of helping individuals stop spending their food money on gasoline.  It seems like a missed opportunity to pass this new interest in transit by.  Are states reviewing their transportation budgets to pay more attention to transit and parking? Are we as an industry good enough at marketing vanpooling and carpooling to really have any impact? 

I don’t know the answer, but this is the time our industry has been waiting for, forever.  Not to benefit from the misery of all the families who have no choice but to pay the gasoline for lack of options and inability to accommodate any form of ridesharing–there will always be an ambient level of people who can (or will) not do anything but drive alone to work.  But this is our time, folks.  When gasoline is back down at $3 a gallon and the panic is over, we’ll be kicking ourselves in the butt for letting this opportunity pass us by.  I hope to hear from some readers who can prove me wrong.

Why, Mom?

As I was watching the five minutes of news I get on Saturday mornings at the top of the hour while watching cartoons with my son (I admit I enjoy them, too) a story came up on drilling for oil and he asked “Mom, can I ask you a question?” That ususally means it is something he is really thinking about.  He asked “Why do we care about the environment now, when its going to a long time before the world is gone?” 

I had two responses for him (both of which could probably have been better, but I do the best I can): first, the world is not going to go away because lots of people are working really hard to do things in a different way so we can save the planet and second, we have to care about it now because it takes a long time to do these things, and we want to be sure the earth is healthy for him when he grows up and his kids and his grandchildren. 

Then my five minutes was up, and it was back to The Best of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles–yes, they’re back for a new generation.

They always say that kids should not deal with adult issues.  I worry about the message that we send our children in talking about the impacts of our current behavior on the future.  Often, when we are planning a marketing effort, we say we should work with school kids so they will bring the message home to their parents and become engaged in the issue themselves.  While this is an issue they will be aware of (it is inescapable these days) I believe I will think twice before I suggest a school based program that talks about the doom and gloom that they may face if adults don’t do something now to secure their futures.  Maybe we can frame it as healthy earth habits–something positive that they’ll feel good about rather than be afraid of.

Its bad enough that they have lock down drills in the schools.  I hope we don’t grow up resigned to life on a violent, dying planet.  Sure its a serious issue, but we can frame it in a positive way that is based on hope rather than fear.

Who is leading this charge?

As I’ve mentioned in my earlier posts (which have been read by no one because technically my blog is not operable yet, but I do enjoy reading my own writing and my mom says she likes it but she’s my mom) this is a spectacular point in time where transportation demand management has merged with environmental and energy issues to be top of mind with most of America. 

Who is our spokesperson?

I personally believe Al Gore blew it when (a) he released “An Inconvenient Truth” commercially rather than recruit thousands of people to give free DVDs out in the downtown areas of every city in the country—the people who had to be persuaded.  All the move did in theaters was preach to the converted. And (b) he rejected me (and my friend Jeff) as spokespeople to deliver his speech to other groups, even though  between the two of us we could have brought most of the transportation, municipal, marketing and business leaders in the tri-state area to the table.  He did, however, pick Cameron Diaz.  Okay, she is better looking than me (and much better looking than Jeff).  But is she going to get up in front of 200 Chamber of Commerce suits at a luncheon in White Plains and do the show?  I think not.

We need a powerful, non-partisan champion who is respected and well spoken and can leap a small Rush Limbaugh barb in a single bound.  Not a Hollywood type (though I respect Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio for their efforts, plus that guy from HBO’s Entourage).  Not a politician.  An enlightened business person?  A former president?  A dynamic university president?  And its not a matter of whether you believe the planet is going to be a puddle by the time our kids graduate high school.  Its about how our world works—how things are made, how people get around, how we power our homes, how we feed our people.  Please send suggestions to me via this blog, and I’ll follow them up. And don’t nominate me, I’m way too busy writing my blog, raising my kid, building my consulting practice, that kind of stuff.  Plus (and this I know will get some responses) I think it needs to be a man.  Gotta be practical if we’re keeping our eye on the prize.

Great to be in Boston

I took the opportunity to hitch a ride with my dad up to Boston today to have my “first” meeting as the Principal of Hetherington Consulting.  I won’t say who I met with because I don’t want to get others involved in my postings, but I will say that like many who run transportation managment associations he was charming, smart, funny, and overworked.  Uh-oh, maybe that gives it away.

Anyway, being back in Boston reminded me of the great diversity within the transportation industry.  I went to Boston University and the T was my only form of transportation beside my feet.  Today I saw hundreds of people emerging from T stops, waiting for buses, riding bicycles–all the “right” things to do that those of us in more suburban areas can only hope for and spend thousands in our search for the right slogan that will turn someone around and make them say “Oh my gosh, I have to carpool!” (Hey, is that Carpooling show still on ABC? It was pretty funny; my son and I are hooked on Discovery Channel so we’re into Deadliest Catch and Mythbusters).  Of course its the same way in NYC, and probably a few other cities in the world, that people take their transit for granted just as we suburbanites take our cars for granted. Of course my dad and I drove into Boston in his Ford Explorer.  But we did carpool. 

And now people are flocking to transit because we’ve gone over the $4 a gallon mark.  After all the work we’ve done and the millions spent by the DOTs to promote ridesharing, is that all we had to do?  At least we can all sleep soundly knowing that they will still need us to fix the traffic congestion problem.  After they build enough transit to accommodate all the people who now want to use it.

 

Can you hear me now?

I’m writing this entry as my knight in shining armor, Stan, is actually attaching my blog to my website.  If you like my site, contact me and I’ll put you in touch with Marcy of Sassi Designs, who led me to Randy and Stan.  Together the four of us have labored (well, Marcy labored in a couple of ways–she welcomed her first baby, Bryson, to the team 4 weeks ago!) to turn my practice from a hopeful concept into a living, breathing business. 

For all of you out there who have wondered “should I quit my job and live by my own talents or squander my life making someone else look good” my answer is GO FOR IT. And there’s nothing like making that first step to put the fire in your belly (ouch, sorry again, Marcy!).  I’m no Gen X or Y-er, but I have passed the point where I think that being rich is a goal.  Its not a goal, its a destination, and then you have to live your life.  Would it be worth the trip?  I want to enjoy every day of the journey, and this is how I’m going to do it.  I’ve got an MBA but my business plan reads like a Don Miguel Ruiz book (The Four Agreements–read it!).  I want to do quality work with great clients.  I want  the flexibility to work a month in Florida if I feel like it (and I do feel like it).  I want to chaperone my son’s class trip to Lighthouse Park beach (actually I can cross that off my list, once was enough).  But aside from stealing every second I can of my son’s childhood, I want to help move transportation choices into the mainstream.  I welcome you on my journey and hope you’ll tag along!

WOW!

This is the most exciting time to be in the transportation business, I know since I started in 1985 but maybe even since the invention of the rail car. 

When I first had the idea to start my own consulting practice, I knew I wanted to work in three distinct areas: transportation, environment, and energy.  Since I first had this thought in February, I can drop the “distinct” and see an amazing synergy materializing between the three areas.  Never in my memory have more people been talking about these three issues, and acknowledging their dependence on one another.  Energy with less of an environmental impact is needed in order to power vehicles to allow people to travel.  What a concept.   Who’d have thought that $4.00 gas would have been the tipping point?

Is the Transportation Demand Management industry participating in this minor miracle of mobility, or is it purely market forces at work?  Are we facilitating change, or simply accommodating it? How do we create programs that justify continued funding when folks are flocking to full train station parking lots and forming their own carpools in droves at work, without outside help? What a tremendous opportunity to achieve what we had hoped for decades—liberal use of public transportation, awareness of the cost (and in many cases, the environmental impact) of each vehicle trip, and public sentiment leaning toward long term solutions? Do I dare say a decrease in traffic congestion, too?

Probably the best long-term solution I have heard was presented by Tom Friedman in his May 28, 2008 Opinion Piece in the New York Times titled “Truth or Consequences.”  Friedman creates a mythical presidential candidate who would support energy economist Phillip Verleger Jr.’s “price floor” of $4.00 a gallon for gasoline.  The price would never fall below this point; if it did, the federal gas tax would rise to make up the difference.  Accommodations would be made to ease the burden on lower-income households, car manufacturers would have to consider this new reality in planning their future inventory, and families would have to decide how badly they needed that extra row of seats in the back of the minivan if they knew for sure that the price of gasoline would never fall below $4.00.

What would have to happen to elect such a candidate and give them the support of Congress to make such an idea a reality?  How could the transportation, environmental, and energy advocates help make this happen? This is our once in a lifetime opportunity for change.  How cool to be a part of this.