Highways to Hell

You're riding your bike to work on the Willamette River Pathway in Portland, Oregon. Before you get to your office, you stop for a shower at Bike Central, a commuting facility downtown. That evening, you put your bicycle on a bus rack and head for a friend's house at the Belmont Dairy, a transit-oriented housing and retail complex. What a wonderful car-free lifestyle, you think, but how did it happen?

The answer is a bureaucratic mouthful: the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA, pronounced "ice tea"). Passed by Congress in 1991, this landmark legislation allows use of highway funds for transit, bike and pedestrian projects and encourages community involvement in transportation and urban planning. ISTEA has now run out of money, and there's an ugly political battle taking place over reauthorization.

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