Bragdon Committee Reports to President Eisenhower

Bragdon Committee Reports to President Eisenhower (1957-1959)

The defects of centrally planning the economy around Federal highways was recognized. The program was too popular underscoring the risks of Tyranny of the Majority. The Constitution’s “post Roads” and “No Preference” clauses mandating Divided Sovereignty of Federalism were ignored.

Below are concerns raised. Over time these concerns have become $2.76 trillion/years in traffic costs, unwalkable cities, racism, foreign oil addiction, oil-wars, oil-dollar funded terrorism, $35 trillion in Federal debt increasing in tandem with oil imports and oil-wars, resource depletion, and Climate Change. Three paths to war and two civilization killers have been created by central planning the US economy around Federal highways. Book: Climate Change Root Cause, Unconstitutional Federal Highways making unwalkable cities

Carpet bombing cities:

DOT links: slides, meeting summary

1. Urban Sprawl and Decentralization

Quote: “The rapid expansion of the Interstate System could lead to the dispersion of population and industry, weakening the economic vitality of urban centers.”

- Long-Term Consequence: The Interstate System did contribute to significant suburban sprawl, leading to the hollowing out of many American cities, urban decay, and the rise of “bedroom communities” with little economic activity.
  - Commerce and community are pedestrian activities. Top-down building of highway harms both commerce and community.
  - Video illustrating how Federal highways made unwalkable cities.
  - Only 1.2% of land area in the 35 largest US cities are walkable land and generate 20% of GDP.
  - CNBC: How Suburban Sprawl Weighs On The U.S. Economy
  - How Suburban Development Makes American Cities Poorer [ST02]
  - Why American Cities Are Broke – The Growth Ponzi Scheme [ST03]
  - How Bankrupt American Cities Stay Alive – Debt [ST04]
  - Suburbia is Subsidized: Here’s the Math [ST07]
  - How Bankrupt American Cities Stay Alive – Debt [ST04]
  - This Ponzi Scheme Might END Suburban Prosperity
  - How highways wrecked American cities.
  - Highways Destroyed our Cities, Let’s Tear them down

2. Increased Car Dependency

Quote: “The overemphasis on highway construction risks undermining public transportation systems, leading to an over reliance on personal vehicles.”

- Long-Term Consequence: Public transit systems in many U.S. cities declined significantly, and car ownership became a necessity rather than an option, contributing to increased oil consumption and greater environmental impact.
  - Only 1.2% of land area in the 35 largest US cities are walkable land and generate 20% of GDP.
  - Newsweek: “Americans needed an annual income of at least $100,000 to afford a car. That means that more than 60 percent of American households currently cannot afford to buy a new car. For individuals, the numbers are even worse, with 82 percent of people below the $100,000 line”
  - Car costs a family about $9,282, is parked 95% of the time with ~85% of car costs leave the local economy. 2.24 cars per household (278.06 million cars, 124.01 million households) 4.6 tons of CO2/car/year

3. Environmental Degradation

Quote: “Large-scale highway construction could have unforeseen impacts on the natural environment, including the disruption of ecosystems and increased pollution.”

- Long-Term Consequence: The Interstate Highway System contributed to significant environmental degradation, including deforestation, habitat destruction, and increased air and water pollution due to vehicle emissions.
  - Resource depletion:
    - Admiral Rickover warned in 1957, “energy slave speech”:
      - “For it is an unpleasant fact that according to our best estimates, total fossil fuel reserves recoverable at not over twice today’s unit cost, are likely to run out at some time between the years 2000 and 2050,”
      - “Fossil fuels resemble capital in the bank. A prudent and responsible parent will use his capital sparingly in order to pass on to his children as much as possible of his inheritance. A selfish and irresponsible parent will squander it in riotous living and care not one whit how his offspring will fare.”
    - US Peak Oil was in 1970.
    - Crash Course, Energy Economics, Cheap Peak Oil, Shale Oil, parts of the Crash Course by Chris Martinson
    - Dallas Federal Reserve warning of 2022: “Shale core exhaustion and inventory concerns are mainstream and well-documented issues. Shale will likely tip over in five years, and U.S. production will be down 20 to 30 percent quickly. When it does—this feels like watching the steam roller scene in Austin Powers. Oil prices in the late 2020s will be something to behold.”
  - Climate Change

4. Economic Imbalance

Quote: “The Federal highway program could exacerbate economic inequalities by diverting resources from urban infrastructure to suburban and rural development.”

- Long-Term Consequence: The shift in economic activity to the suburbs contributed to the decline of urban economies, increased economic inequality, and underinvestment in city infrastructure.
  - US Federal debts has increased in tandem with foreign oil imports and the cost of oil wars to $35 trillion.
  - Debt is the tax on future labor. Debt beyond 19 years repayment is a tax on the future labor of childen imposed without consent, Taxation without Representation.

5. Public Health Impacts

Quote: “The design of the highway system may lead to changes in lifestyle that could negatively impact public health, particularly by reducing physical activity.”

- Long-Term Consequence: The rise of car-centric suburbs contributed to a decrease in physical activity, leading to a sharp increase in obesity and related health problems in the U.S.
  - Asthma: Living near highways is associated with a higher risk of asthma, particularly in children. A study found that children living within 75 meters (about 246 feet) of a major road had a 50% higher risk of developing asthma compared to those living farther away.
  - Cardiovascular and Respiratory Hospitalizations: A study in Los Angeles found that people living near freeways had a 2.5 times higher risk of hospitalization due to respiratory problems. Additionally, long-term exposure to traffic-related pollution was linked to a 70% increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease.
  - Premature Deaths: The Health Effects Institute reported that long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution contributes to 30,000 to 45,000 premature deaths annually in the United States, with a significant portion of these deaths occurring in urban areas.
  - Chronic Stress: Chronic exposure to traffic noise has been linked to increased stress levels, leading to anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. A study found that people living near high-traffic roads were 25% more likely to suffer from depression compared to those living in quieter areas.
  - Sleep Disturbance: Noise pollution from highways can disrupt sleep, leading to a cascade of negative health outcomes, including impaired cognitive function, cardiovascular issues, and a weakened immune system. Studies show that long-term exposure to traffic noise increases the risk of hypertension by 7% for every 10 decibel increase in noise level.
  - Obesity:
    - 1950: ~10-15% obesity rate among adults.
    - 1980: ~23% obesity rate.
    - 2000: ~30% obesity rate.
    - 2010: ~35-40% obesity rate.
    - 2024: ~42-44% obesity rate.

6. National Security Risks

Quote: “The concentration of transportation infrastructure in the form of highways could present significant risks to national security by creating critical vulnerabilities.”

- Long-Term Consequence:
  - Link to every President from Nixon issued unanswered calls to action to end foreign oil addiction:
    - President Nixon, 1974, “At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need. We will hold our future in our hands alone.” Foreign oil 30%.
    - President Ford, 1975, “First, we must reduce oil imports by 1 million barrels per day by the end of this year and by 2 million barrels per day by the end of 1977. Second, we must end vulnerability to economic disruption by foreign suppliers by 1985.” Foreign oil 35.8%
    - President Carter, 1979, “This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our Nation. The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our Nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.” Foreign oil 43.1%.
    - President Reagan, 1981, “While conservation is worthy in itself, the best answer is to try to make us independent of outside sources to the greatest extent possible for our energy.” Foreign oil 33.6%.
    - President Bush, 1992, “There is no security for the United States in further dependence on foreign oil.” Foreign oil 40.6%.
    - President Clinton, 1995, “The nation’s growing reliance on imports of oil … threatens the nation’s security … [we] will continue efforts to … enhance domestic energy production.” Foreign oil 44.5%.
    - President W. Bush, 2006, “Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. Here we have a serious problem. America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” Foreign oil 59.9%.
    - President Obama, 2010, “For decades we have known that the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered….” Foreign oil 49.2%.
    - President Trump, 2017, “We will become, and stay, totally independent of any need to import energy from the OPEC cartel or any nations hostile to our interests.” Foreign oil 33%.
    - President Biden, 2022, “Second, this crisis is a stark reminder: To protect our economy over the long term, we need to become energy independent. I’ve had numerous conversations over the last three months with our European friends of how they have to wean themselves off of Russia — Russian oil. It’s just not — it’s just not tenable. It should motivate us to accelerate the transition to clean energy.” Foreign oil 33%.
  - That addiction funded terrorists with oil-dollars and committed the US to oil-wars since 1991.
  - Link to Joint Forces Command’s warning of future oil-wars.

7. Traffic Congestion and Safety Issues

Quote: “The expansion of highways may induce greater traffic volumes, potentially leading to congestion rather than alleviating it.”

- Long-Term Consequence: The phenomenon of induced demand led to persistent traffic congestion in many metropolitan areas, as new highways encouraged more people to drive rather than reducing traffic.
  - Traffic costs Americans $2.76 trillion per year.
    - $756 billion per year for oil.
    - $871 billion per year in accidents, alternate data source.
      - 40,100 road-deaths in 2017.
      - 2.31 million injuries in 2013.
    - $305 billion per year in congestion.
    - $109 billion per year in car damage from poor road maintenance.
    - $723 billion per year in land use at $1 per square foot per year (cost of a garden plot, apartments are normally $2-5 square foot per month with multiple floors in a single square foot of land).
  - Road crashs cause 11,200 serious injuries per million people. In contrast theme park thrill rides have an injury rate of 3.7 injuries per million.

8. Displacement and Social Disruption

Quote: “The construction of the Interstate Highway System could lead to the displacement of communities, particularly marginalized populations, leading to significant social and economic upheaval.”

- Long-Term Consequence:
  - Federal highway construction replace Jim Crow since 1956.
  - Boston Globe, 2017: That was no typo: The median net worth of black Bostonians really is $8. The article goes on to note that the average net worth for white families in Boston is $247,500. The primary driver of this racist outcome is Massachusetts and Federal transportation construction through low-income neighborhoods that repeatedly destroyed businesses, built linear barriers to commerce, and moved jobs to the suburbs for the outsized benefit of the politically powerful at the expense of the politically weak.
  - Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx: It’s time for America to reckon with the role that highway projects too often play in ripping apart underprivileged communities around the country. In the first 20 years of the federal interstate system alone highway construction displaced 475,000 families and over a million Americans. Most of them were low-income people of color in urban cores.
  - Sugar Hill video, E2 Sesson 1, Lessons in Chemistry
  - 72 second video of woman questioning building a Federal highway through her neighborhood.
  - Bulldozed and bisected: Highway construction built a legacy of inequality. Will their removal heal historic wounds?
  - Dismantling Transportation Apartheid in the United States Before and After Disasters Strike
  - Highway to Inequity: The Disparate Impact of the Interstate Highway System on Poor and Minority Communities in American Cities
  - Racial Bias and Interstate Highway Planning: A Mixed Methods Approach
  - What does a traffic jam in Atlanta have to do with segregation? Quite a lot.
  - Hatred Endorsed by a President
  - How ODOT destroyed Albina: The I-5 Meat Axe
  - Back of the Bus: Mass transit, race and inequality
  - America’s Unfair Rules of the Road, How our transportation system discriminates against the most vulnerable.
  - Bicycle/Race: Transportation, Culture, & Resistance
  - Win ‘Policing the Open Road’ Book by Sarah Seo
  - Policing the Open Road
  - THE BATTLE OF LINCOLN PARK: URBAN RENEWAL AND GENTRIFICATION IN CHICAGO
  - Snob Zones: Fear, Prejudice, and Real Estate
  - Bleeding Albina: A History of Community Disinvestment, 1940‐2000
  - Heat Wave, A SOCIAL AUTOPSY OF DISASTER IN CHICAGO
  - Just Transportation: Dismantling Race and Class Barriers to Mobility
  - FAMILY PROPERTIES, How the Struggle Over Race and Real Estate Transformed Chicago and Urban America
  - Environmental Inequalities, Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945-1980
  - People before Highways
  - The Role of Highways in American Poverty, They seemed like such a good idea in the 1950s.
  - google: racial bias of federal highway programs
  - Transportation Protests: 1841 to 1992
  - Black people are about to be swept aside for a South Carolina freeway — again
  - The Insane Highway Plan That Would Have Bulldozed DC’s Most Charming Neighborhoods
  - NPR: 7 minute summery: A Brief History Of How Racism Shaped Interstate Highways
  - “White Men’s Roads Thru Black Men’s Homes”: Reflecting on DC’s Freeway Fight
  - “White Men’s Roads through Black Men’s Homes”: Advancing Racial Equity through Highway Reconstruction
  - PBS: Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America
  - How the U.S. Government Destroyed Black Neighborhoods
  - Confronting the Racist Legacy of Urban Highways
  - How the Building of I-43 Destroyed Milwaukee’s Black Community
  - Whitewashing Albina’s destruction

9. Reduced Investment in Public Transit

Quote: “The prioritization of highway construction risks diverting critical resources away from public transportation systems, which are essential for the vitality of urban centers.”

- Long-Term Consequence: Public transportation in many U.S. cities declined as highways became the primary focus, leading to decreased mobility for non-drivers and contributing to social inequities.
  - Mobility is physical liberty. It should be equitable and sustainable.
  - Prior to Federal funding of highways (1916) every US city with a population over 10,000 had at least one privately funded street car network.
  - To estimate the total percentage of all Americans who are denied liberty because they do not drive:
    - Children (Under 16): 18-20%
    - Elderly (65+ who do not drive): 3.4-5.1%
    - Other Adults (16-64 who do not drive): 11-13%
    - Lower Estimate: 18% (children) + 3.4% (elderly) + 11% (other adults) = 32.4%
    - Upper Estimate: 20% (children) + 5.1% (elderly) + 13% (other adults) = 38.1%
  - Congressional Study, PB-244854, Automated Guideway Transit, 1975 was published to identify solutions to the 1973 Oil Embargo and traffic problems. Finding were:
    - Government “institutional failures” blocked urban transportation innovation for “four to six decades (aside from some relatively minor cosmetic changes)… Compared with many other areas of entrepreneurial endeavor, the environment for innovation in transportation should be favorable. Urban transportation needs are extensive… In retrospect, the new systems efforts have served not to stimulate interest in new technology but to discourage already reluctant local transit operators from considering it.”“Proponents of PRT view this concept as a reasonable supplement to the private automobile in high density urban areas and claim that PRT can provide a very much higher level of service than other modes of public transportation. Thus, it is argued that PRT systems would attract a significant percentage of the rides now being made in private automobiles and offer obvious benefits:
      - less traffic congestion in urban areas.
      - less land and fewer facilities used for automobile storage. . reduced travel time under more comfortable Circumstance. . less noise and air pollution.
      - reduction in consumption of petroleum-derived fuels.
      - reduction in requirements for new arterial roads and urban freeways.
      It is contended that PRT would provide greater mobility for the transportation disadvantaged, i.e., the young, the elderly, the poor, and the handicapped.”.
    - Planned and coerced to comply by Federal violation of the Preamble, “post Roads”, “No Preference”, 9th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution.