But eliminating impact fees passes the costs of increased traffic, highway maintenance, and new schools, fire stations and police protection directly to the broader community. Participants at both meetings learned that freight transport in and through the county has been growing at roughly 11 percent per year, a trend that is likely to accelerate as British Columbia builds out its port facilities and as the border, through globalization initiatives, becomes more transparent. Toss in upwards of an additional 30,000 cars on the roads over the next decade that, as a result of atrocious planning, must use an aging I-5 as a city arterial and perhaps the problem comes a bit more into focus. The solutions are a little less obvious, as the groups learned. We cannot, they learned, pave our way out of the problem.
More pavement only encourages more use.
We cannot grow our way out of the problem, either. That said, readers may faint away when The Skinny declares that The Subdued City would probably be a little healthier if it was a bit larger. And, with the flight of an aging monied populace from metro areas north and south, an emphasis on quality of life would emerge as the majority opinion of an informed electorate. Stated mathematically, the size of a city is inversely proportionate to the greedheads per capita who are in love with the idea of growing the place larger. Interestingly, a recent study in the hands of the state Senate links the success of transportation alternatives to the density of the areas they serve.