Transportation Reform

According to the US Census Bureau there are 301,348,025 people in the United States with 3,421,399 of us living in Oregon. (http://www.census.gov/) There are 176,628,482 lcensed driver in the US, with 2,541,873 living in Oregon. According the the US Department of Transportation the need for transportation reform is great. "congestion results from poor policy choices, and a failure to separate and embrace solutions that are effective from those that are not." (http://www.dot.gov/) According to Anthony Downs of the Washington Post 87.9%  of the daily comuters use private transportation.

Americans love our cars, but our addiction is killing us. In the first part of the decade we saw George Bush taking office in a very flawed election, Enron was his biggest campaign contributor. When it emploded, it was  the largest bankruptcy in history. His VP Dick Cheney said "energy conservation...maybe a sign of personal virtue, but is not a sufficient basis sound, comprehensive energy policy."

"Voices from across the political spectrum say oil dependence is bad for America's national security, economy, and environment."(http://www.nrdc.org/)

Meanwhile the Energy Information Agency predicts that the global demand for oil would continue to grow, increasing 60% by the year 2020, that is roughly 120 million barrels of oil per day.

We must curb our addiction to oil it is killing us.