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Page 46

Yet Metro notes that the cost of operating the south-north

light-rail line will limit future bus expansion.

Despite all of the flaws in Portland's transportation

plan, it received a glowing endorsement from the U.S. De-

partment of Transportation.93  The department was particu-

larly enthusiastic about Portland's "promising" land-use

planning process.  Reviewers did not note whether they were

aware that Portland planners projected a 300 percent in-

crease in congestion and a 10 percent increase in smog-

related pollution.

Conclusion

Many of ISTEA's supporters may have good intentions,

but the law's flaws produce consequences contrary to its

stated goal of producing a transportation system that is

economically efficient and environmentally sound to move

people and goods in an energy-efficient manner.

ISTEA creates perverse incentives.  States and locali-

ties view the federal Treasury as a commons, available

primarily to those who are first in line.  Rather than

promote efficiency, ISTEA's funding system places cities in

competition with one another to get federal dollars for

expensive transportation systems that rarely meet local

needs.

ISTEA in fact is based in part on the ideology of New

Urbanists who see cars as a scourge that breaks up communi-

ties and creates "sterile suburbs."  They would increase

road congestion as a way to induce individuals to live in

downtowns, shop in local shops rather than large malls, and

make rail a more attractive and economically viable alterna-

tive to the car.

Light-rail systems built in recent decades, however,

have cost 10 to 100 times as much per mile as roads but have

attracted few net new riders.  Meanwhile, as congestion

increases, air pollution problems will most likely get

worse.  But the fact that cities may suffer federal sanc-

tions at some point in the future if they fail to clean up

their air is less important than the fact that cities with

dirty air today are eligible for additional federal funding.

States and cities managed to bridge the rivers that

divide them and join roads across their borders long before

the creation of the federal interstate highway system.