Five Questions

How does infrastructure intersect with climate change?

just can’t get things done as quickly. Also, our elected officials get political capital by cutting the ribbon on new projects, not by filling potholes. So there’s this natural tendency in democratic societies to defer maintenance. Most of our infrastructure projects were built 50, 60 years ago and were designed for a 50-year service life. They’re dying on schedule. We just haven’t sufficiently upgraded and maintained them. Partly, it’s about mitigation; we’re trying to reduce carbon emissions to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C, compared to preindustrial levels. It’s a momentous target and you can’t achieve it unless you decarbonize transportation. You’ve got to move to electric vehicles. But it’s also about resilience. It’s about how we build roads and bridges so that they’re not going to topple in extreme weather. Obviously, this carries Professor Emeritus and Transportation high costs and won’t benefit us so much as it will our children’s children. That’s hisPolicy Expert, Robert Cervero torically how we thought about infrastructure. For example, it was probably very hard in New York City in the early 1900s to

The word infrastructure has been in the news a lot justify building the subways. But it was understood that the true since President Biden announced his $2 trillion plan to beneficiaries would be the next generation. We have to think likeimprove and repair roads, bridges, and tunnels, etc. He also wise when it comes to infrastructure and climate, which is really proposes to provide electric vehicle incentives, increase an intergenerational issue.

investments in manufacturing, and improve elder care. Do these things fit your definition of infrastructure? Are you optimistic that there is enough time and political will to build

Historically, we talk about public infrastructure. The sustainable infrastructure in this country? nature of public infrastructure is that my private con- I think we have to be optimistic. And I think the president’s plan sumption of it benefits the public at large. If I were to is an important step in the right direction. I also think this plan is consume poor-quality water and get sick, that’s a pub- so large that the incumbents are going to resist it. I’m heartened lic cost. If I use public transportation and help reduce by the fact that Biden was a longtime senator and learned the art traffic, the public benefits. But there’s some gray area, of compromise. I think he went out with a very aggressive plan, no question. Society is better off having healthy seniors, realizing the more aggressive he was, the more likely it was that he but the benefit is predominantly to the seniors them- would get some reasonably bold step forward. selves. We’re all better off with lower carbon emissions from electric cars, but much of the benefit is to the car To change topics, tell us about your running hobby—or obsession. owner. There’s enough stretching of the definition that In the early 2000s, I was contacted by the Robert Wood Johnit’s no great surprise this has become controversial. son foundation to join an expert advisory panel, which I chaired. The Active Living Research program sponsored interdisciplinary

The American Society of Civil Engineers recently gave research to help reverse America’s growing obesity epidemic. At

U.S. infrastructure a C- grade. Things like dams and seminars, researchers showed that sedentary living was a major schools got Ds. How did it get so bad? contributor to obesity. That was my lifestyle at the time—sitting in In California, we’ve been trying to build a high-speed an office chair for eight hours a day. I was overweight and stuck in rail system for the last 35 years. Meanwhile, other a sloth-like existence. The Active Living movement lit a fire under economies—particularly China—are building smart me. I began running—a half mile, then a mile, then several miles … infrastructure at a dizzyingly rapid pace and are now and quickly got into a virtuous cycle wherein I’d lose some weight, poised to leapfrog well ahead of us. There are reasons run a bit faster, and then lose even more weight. Within a half year China can do this. They’re a communist system. They I ran my first marathon. To date, I’ve completed 66 marathons and have a national economic development plan. There’s 112 ultras, mostly on mountainous trails, ranging from 50Ks to no public debate. A lot of our infrastructure projects 100-milers. While I haven’t run a race in over two years, I still run a get embroiled in controversy and stopped. It’s not just lot, albeit slowly, this year averaging over 200 miles a month. a matter of public input but also environmental review and labor protection laws and private regulations. We —N.A.