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TODAY Thursday 26 February 1998 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: That Darn Triple-A

The American Automobile Association may run a decent towing service, and the maps are OK, but they are one big problem when it comes to federal transportation policy. Most of AAA's 39 million members are unaware that their apparently-inoffensive organization is as influential as the truckers and the automakers in keeping tax dollars away from rails, trains, buses, and sidewalks.

Thanks to the gumshoes at the Surface Transportation Policy Project, we learn that AAA has teamed up with the American Highway Users' Alliance to lobby Congress against the 1.7% of the federal transportation budget dedicated to the Transportation Enhancements Program. Terrible name, but the program funds good things like bikepaths, bus stops, senior vans, and preservation of old railroad stations. AAA says highways, highways, and maybe a little for airports. They're gunning up a campaign called "Crisis Ahead," and urging big allocations to straighten and widen two-lane roads around the country. I haven't yet read the campaign prospectus, which explains why America "desperately needs" upgrading of those curvy rural routes into respectable four-lane highways with 30-foot shoulders.

Meanwhile, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has launched a fearless effort to reduce road rage. They have retained a psychologist from the University of Michigan who last week at a press conference counseled aggravated drivers to "count to ten, interrupt the breathing, process, relax." Radio ads will urge that we "drive with the same courtesy we extend to people in the rest of our lives."

Here in New York, of course, that's dubious advice.

 

TODAY ON THE SITE

Yesterday's column in this space talked about Bruce Babbitt and his measured support for the Kempthorne-Chafee bill to reauthorize the Endangered Species Act. As noted, enviro advocates are sub-ecstatic about this development, and yesterday's Greenwire brought word that some greenish Senators will be proposing amendments to strengthen the hand of federal regulators. Then Tom Turner zapped a message to us from the e-mail ether to the effect that insiders are saying that Senator Trent Lott is trying to squeeze into Kempthorne-Chafee owner-protection clauses so objectionable that they threaten to break the tender Republican compromise. Secretary Babbitt could be expected to walk away from the deal if Lott gets lots. And then all returns to zero.

 

Recent "Today" columns:

2/25: Cutting a Deal on Endangered Species
2/24: Fire? Again?
2/23: Garbage
2/20: Population Rebellion in the Sierra Club
2/19: The Trouble With Cattle
2/18: Optimistic Feds and the Future of Kyoto
2/17: The New Great Game
2/13: Windmills
2/12: Stuart Eizenstat's Smart Bomb
2/11: Alligator in the Coal Mine
2/10: Inconvenient Public Opinion
2/9: Remember Penn Station
2/6: Adam Smith and Automobile Efficiency
2/5: Clean Water, Naturally
2/4: Roll, Storms, Roll
2/3: Land Purchase Fever
2/2: Groundhog Day in the Persian Gulf
1/30: Trees and Hormones
1/29: Things To Come (2)
1/28: Things To Come
1/27: 'Bye, 'Bye Brazil
1/26: Jaywalking and Jaydriving
1/23: Good Biotech, Bad Biotech
1/22: No More Roads
1/21: Swordfish

To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.