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Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America
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Every morning in 21st-century America, thousands of people wake up and prepare to take a cross-country trip. Some are traveling for business. Others are visiting family or going on vacations. Whether they are leaving from New York or Los Angeles, Atlanta or Seattle, their trips have a lot in common.Every morning in 21st-century America, thousands of people wake up and prepare to take a cross-country trip. Some are traveling for business. Others are visiting family or going on vacations. Whether they are leaving from New York or Los Angeles, Atlanta or Seattle, their trips have a lot in common.
They leave their homes several hours before their plane is scheduled to depart. Many sit in traffic on their way to the airport. Once they arrive, they park their cars and make their way through the terminal, waiting in a security line, taking off their shoes, removing laptops and liquids from their bags. When they finally get to the gate, they often wait again because their flight is delayed. The flight itself typically lasts about six hours heading west, and the travelers then need to find ground transportation to their destination. Door to door, cross-country journeys often last 10 or even 12 hours.They leave their homes several hours before their plane is scheduled to depart. Many sit in traffic on their way to the airport. Once they arrive, they park their cars and make their way through the terminal, waiting in a security line, taking off their shoes, removing laptops and liquids from their bags. When they finally get to the gate, they often wait again because their flight is delayed. The flight itself typically lasts about six hours heading west, and the travelers then need to find ground transportation to their destination. Door to door, cross-country journeys often last 10 or even 12 hours.
In the sweep of human history, these trips remain a marvel of ingenuity. For centuries, long-distance travel required weeks or months and could be dangerous. Today, somebody can eat breakfast on one end of the continental United States and dinner on the other. If you narrow the focus to recent decades, however, you will notice another striking fact about these trips: Almost none of the progress has occurred in the past half-century. A cross-country trip today typically takes more time than it did in the 1970s. The same is true of many trips within a region or a metropolitan area.In the sweep of human history, these trips remain a marvel of ingenuity. For centuries, long-distance travel required weeks or months and could be dangerous. Today, somebody can eat breakfast on one end of the continental United States and dinner on the other. If you narrow the focus to recent decades, however, you will notice another striking fact about these trips: Almost none of the progress has occurred in the past half-century. A cross-country trip today typically takes more time than it did in the 1970s. The same is true of many trips within a region or a metropolitan area.
Compare this stagnation with the progress of the previous century. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, and passenger trains ran on its route days later, revolutionizing a journey that had taken months. People could suddenly cross the country in a week. Next came commercial flight. In the 1930s, an airplane could beat a train across the country by hopscotching from city to city. Finally, the jet age arrived: The first regularly scheduled nonstop transcontinental flight occurred on Jan. 25, 1959, from Los Angeles to New York, on a new long-range Boeing jet, the 707.
The poet Carl Sandburg was among the passengers on the return American Airlines flight that first day. “You look out of the window at the waves of dark and light clouds looking like ocean shorelines,” he wrote about the trip, “and you feel as if you are floating away in this pleasantly moving room, like the basket hanging from the balloon you saw with a visiting circus when you were a boy.” Sandburg was born in 1878, when crossing the country took almost a week. His cross-country flight took five and a half hours.