Staving off potential climate impacts from $1 trillion infrastructure bill

A recent New York Times article discussed how infrastructure funding in the U.S. could increase carbon emissions if measures aren’t in place to prevent that. The recent $1 trillion infrastructure law gives states $273 billion over five years for highways. Many states will likely use that money to widen highways, which environmental groups fear will create more traffic across the board through a phenomenon known as “induced traffic demand.”

Expanding highways can come with a variety of other unintended consequences, too, such as congestion off of highways in nearby cities, as well as air pollution. The best way to decrease emissions is to sharply reduce use of vehicles with internal combustion engines — a complicated effort in a nation where conventional vehicles still vastly outnumber electric or alternative fuel vehicles.

“If we’re not just looking at [road] repairs and actually planning new highways, there is a big risk from an environmental standpoint that we do have incremental emissions on the road, but also traffic demand,” said Tyler Cole, FreightWaves’ director of carbon intelligence.

With transportation producing 29% of emissions in the United States (the largest source of greenhouse gases in the nation), many states are looking for ways to increase sustainability. Colorado, which is among states that have significant issues with highway and interstate traffic, is approaching infrastructure differently. In a recently adopted climate regulation, Colorado is pushing transportation planners away from highway expansion and toward more sustainable solutions, like bike lanes and buses.

“People will flock to the option that is there if there is the right incentive, and the incentive could be ‘I’m not worried about biking now because I know I won’t get hit by a car,’” said Cole.

Colorado’s incentivizing of greener transportation solutions could be an example for other states seeking to craft infrastructure that boosts communities’ quality of life while also reducing carbon emissions.