CHICAGO (WBBM) - There's more to transportation than another mile of concrete according to a Chicago coalition joining a nationwide push for new  transit priorities.

In the Great Hall of Chicago's Union Station, Jackie Grimshaw with the Center for Neighborhood Technology said people will never get out of their cars unless neighborhoods are made less car-dependent and there's investment in public transit and high-speed and inter-city rail.

The Center for Neighborhood Technology along with the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, the RTA, and the Environmental Law and Policy center are backing a nationwide program called: "Build For America: A Five-Point Plan To Get Our Economy Moving."

The program's five points are:

1. BUILD TO COMPETE with China and Europe, by modernizing and expanding our rail and transit networks to reduce oil dependence, connect the metro regions that are the engines of the modern economy.

2. INVEST FOR A CLEAN, GREEN RECOVERY through cleaner vehicles and new fuels as well as the cleanest forms of transportation - modern public transit, walking and biking - and for energy-efficient, sustainable development.

3. FIX WHAT’S BROKEN before building new roads and restore our crumbling highways, bridges and transit systems.

4. STOP WASTEFUL SPENDING and re-evaluate projects currently in the pipeline to eliminate those with little economic return that could deepen our oil dependence.

5. SAVE AMERICANS MONEY. Provide more travel and housing options that are affordable and efficient, while helping people to avoid high gas costs and traffic congestion.

Grimshaw with the Center for Neighborhood Technology says Illinois transit priorities have not changed since the 1950s when a transportation improvement was always and only: another mile of highway.

She says citizens should take note that it's "The Illinois Department of Transportation," not the Illinois Department of More Highways". 

The point of the program was to sensitize citizens to new priorities needed to climb out of oil wells owned by others and into a new future of transit for everyone based on cleaner and cheaper fuels.

On the Net: www.cnt.org