2022 Summer Issue - 58

industry and ULI members can address. In those five
key areas, the report states that infrastructure should
do the following:
Increase equity and sustainability;
Invest in public transportation and mobility;
Combat the global threat of climate change;
Increase access to the internet; and
Increase housing affordability and attainability.
In addition, regarding leveraging infrastructure
investment, " simply maintaining existing infrastructure
without new and restorative investments is not
enough to support and create sustainable growth, "
says Craig Lewis, global practice leader of planning,
landscape, and urban design for CallisonRTKL, and
global board chair of the ULI Curtis Infrastructure
Initiative. " Nor does it tap into the unique valueenhancing
relationship created by the real estate
development process between those who build and
maintain infrastructure, the developers of buildings,
and the end user. "
ULI members can use this report to guide the conversations
locally by encouraging more investment in
infrastructure that embraces the five focus areas.
These new funds will be critical to the country's
economic, social, and environmental well-being.
All too often past investments have favored some
communities at the expense of others. Interstate
highways, for example, have greatly improved mobility
and promoted economic prosperity throughout
the country, but they have also cut once thriving
communities in two, displaced thousands of lowincome
households, and otherwise disproportionately
harmed Black people and other communities of color.
As noted in the new ULI report 10 Principles for
Embedding Racial Equity in Real Estate Development
(page 22), some of these physical and social divides
were advanced intentionally and unintentionally
during the 20th century by the commercial real estate
industry-including advocacy through articles in this
magazine as well as by some ULI members-through
racial covenants, support of inequitable highway
alignments, and other " best practices " of the time.
As more ULI leaders and members understand the
legacy of these infrastructure investments, they will
be in a better position to shape a more equitable
future with racial equity as a core value.
Status Quo: Incentivizing Sprawl
Simply moving people is becoming the largest contributor
to greenhouse gas emissions in the United
States, especially when the real estate industry is
doing such a good job of electrifying and reducing
58
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SUMMER 2022
emissions from buildings: between 1990 and 2020,
emissions declined 7.6 percent in the residential
sector and 7.7 percent in the commercial sector,
according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). This, along with other industry improvements,
is driving down greenhouse emissions in
every U.S. sector except transportation. According
to the EPA, this rise in transportation emissions is
largely due to gasoline consumption by cars and
trucks as vehicle miles traveled has increased.
A major cause of this is land use policy that incentivizes
automobile-centric development that increases
vehicle miles traveled. An example is North Carolina,
where the transportation sector accounts for 36 percent
of the state's gross greenhouse gas emissions
and was highlighted as the key sector that needs
attention in order to meet established climate goals.
All other emission sources-from electricity generation
and residential, commercial, and industrial
uses-reduced their gross greenhouse gas emissions
by 16 percent between 1990 and 2018.
According to the Transportation for America report
" The Congestion Con: How More Lanes and More
Money Equals More Traffic, " total U.S. highway lanemiles
increased by 42 percent between 1993 and
2017 in the 100 largest urbanized areas. This increase
outpaced population growth of 32 percent during the
same period, and points to states taking on significant
financial liability as they attempt to relieve traffic
congestion, which increased by 144 percent during
those same years.
Those additional lane-miles make it more likely
that a person drives on the roadway even if it involves
more miles traveled-choosing time savings over
reduced distance, thereby increasing vehicle miles.
In contrast, if investment had instead been made in
creating frequent and reliable public transportation
or safer bike routes, those trips would either not be
taken at all or would been taken on another mode
of transportation. This is because investments and
improvements to transportation networks induce
demand by generating new trips.
Durham, North Carolina-one of the fastestgrowing
U.S. regions-is taking a different approach
by investing in public transit. During the pandemic,
the region revamped its Durham County Transit Plan
through an extensive community engagement process
to better understand the needs and priorities of
transit riders. This initiative was partially conducted
in response to the decision not to move forward with
the city's light-rail project and instead direct investment
toward increased bus rapid-transit service. This
2022 Summer Issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2022 Summer Issue
