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Work Smarter, Not Harder: New Public Works Imperative
This is from Citiwire.Net. It does not necessarily represent the views of The Cascade Agenda or the Cascade Land Conservancy. At times, we present views we think will be of interest to supporters of The Agenda.
December 28th, 2008
By Alex Marshall
While Congress gets ready for a rancorous debate over guidelines for spending billions in infrastructure stimulus funds, some states and cities are already getting deadly serious–not so much about bigger and fancier infrastructure projects, but smarter infrastructure systems.
Just this month, for example, New York City joined a group of far-sighted managers of waterworks nationwide by recommending a “sustainable stormwater management plan” to expand water and sewer capacity. The idea is not to build more plants or pipes but rather by invest in decentralized conservation systems and better maintenance.
Also this year, Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City’s transportation commissioner, made headlines when she put tables and chairs and bike lanes in the middle of downtown streets and said that the highest and best use of a thoroughfare was not necessarily more cars.
And James Rogers, president if Duke Energy, has been shocking utility commissions by insisting his company be paid for getting its customers to use less, not more power.
Question: What’s up here? Isn’t “more is better” the proven, undisputed motto of all infrastructure projects? Isn’t the issue just about laying pipe, asphalt, train tracks, cables, water lines and making the big machinery that serves them? To build, as it were, the world’s skeleton, with the idea that more is always better?
Well, perhaps not–any more. The powerful new trend is to put the words “green” or “smart” as descriptors in front of the word “infrastructure.” The labels vary, the movement disparate. But there’s clearly a growing new orientation that cuts across disciplines as disparate as roads and power, parks and airports.
The smart infrastructure crew, in short, is now concluding that more is not always better. The goal, instead: to figure out why people need something, then meet the need in smarter, more efficient and often less expensive ways.
