Event Summary: Greg Shill on Rural Transportation (1.27.22)
Professor Greg Shill presented the third talk in our 2021 - 2022 Rural Reconciliation Project program series on RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE, focusing on the theme of TRANSPORTATION. A full recording of his talk, Law and Transportation, is available here. Additional event data, for those interested, is also archived here.
On this page, Aurora Kenworthy, a star third-year law student at the University of Nebraska College of Law and esteemed RRP research assistant (find her bio in the student contributor section here), provides the following event summary, from her perspective.
On Thursday, January 27, 2022, Professor Greg Shill (Iowa Law) delivered a talk entitled “Law and Transportation” as part of the Rural Reconciliation Project’s Rural Infrastructure Series. For this talk, Shill drew on his prior research including Rewriting Our Nation’s Deadly Traffic Manual and Should Law Subsidize Driving? (digested by RRP here).
Shill began by framing transportation as a peripheral necessity. Likening it to water or the internet, Shill explained transportation unlocks the ability of people and communities to accomplish the things they want, but he noted that transportation is often not at the center of policy discussions. Transportation policy, however, is incredibly important, and our collective transportation choices have far-reaching impacts.
Shill said our transportation policies should prioritize “enabl[ing] convenient access to destinations at an affordable price in terms of financial cost, safety, and externalities.” Shill asserted traveling quickly was not an overriding goal per se and elaborated on the many externalities that could contribute to the calculation of the costs of various transportation choices, including the safety of other people, climate change, and environmental damage more generally. Shill highlighted the need for such considerations to be grounded in place sensitivity and an effort to avoid unfair costs to vulnerable communities and individuals.
Shill then identified several current challenges related to transportation, identifying transportation as both a big and wicked problem. Transportation is a big problem because it causes over 100,000 deaths and millions of serious injuries annually. Transportation “privilege”—the benefit of not having to think about or struggle with access to transportation on a regular basis—is also distributed unequally.
Shill also elaborated on how transportation is a wicked problem, meaning it is a complex problem with an unknown number of potential solutions and complicated by many different components and variables. The unseen benefit to transportation being a wicked problem, however, is that a single change to one aspect of the system can mitigate many other seemingly unrelated problems. In other words, addressing transportation problems can also address such diverse issues as climate change, racial equity, and public health.
The main theme of Shill’s presentation was the relationship between the law and transportation. As Shill framed it, the ability to cross a street safely is shaped by political and legal institutions. As an illustration, Shill discussed a provision of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). This particular provision, the 85th Percentile Rule, states that speed limits for a roadway should be set at the pace that 85% of drivers are driving below. Shill discussed how this rule subverts the rule of law by relying on common practice to determine standards. The stakes for reforming the Manual are high. About a third of traffic deaths are speed-related and Shill asserted that the number is likely much higher. Shill mentioned the social acceptability of speeding and the limitations in accurately assessing the role speeding plays in crashes, including the cost of crash reconstruction. Shill suggested, among other solutions, reworking the group that advises the Federal Highway Administration on the Manual to be more representative of all stakeholders.
Shill also analyzed other examples of the role the law plays in increasing the risks of driving. By way of example, Shill discussed the right-turn-on-red rule, which Shill noted was established by the Department of Energy to reduce idling but without any meaningful study of the effects of such a rule. Shill also explored how speed limits are chronically underenforced and discussed how high-performing solutions to traffic problems are outlawed in some states, including red-light cameras, light rail projects, and speed cameras.
Shill provided many more examples, anecdotes, and data regarding the relationship between the law and transportation, so a full listen to his presentation is certainly warranted. After Shill’s presentation, attendees asked questions ranging from the future of public transit to the impact of the new infrastructure bill on rural transportation access and equity.
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There is of course much more to explore regarding rural infrastructure, and the conversation will continue with the next talk in The Rural Reconciliation’s Project’s Rural Infrastructure Series focusing on BROADBAND. Dr. Christopher Ali (Media Studies, University of Virginia) will present Policies for a Disconnected America: The Promise of Rural Broadband on February 25, 2022. Register here!
