“The United States of America is the third largest carbon polluter in the world. About 60% of our carbon emits from our transportation systems such as cars and trucks on the interstates and airplanes in our skies. Our continent-spanning country can not solve this problem overnight, but individual states can organize themselves to reduce congestion and expand opportunities from big cities to smaller cities. America doesn’t have to wait for Washington D.C. to solve all its problems. Nevertheless, senators, congressmembers, and a responsible administration could do more to help states invest in sustainable infrastructure.

Almost 10 years ago, I created 50 twitter accounts for high-speed rail in each state in the country. I left the grassroots and professional organization of actual high-speed rail programs up to other Americans in those states, because I am just one individual. However, it eventually occurred to me that I was not leveraging my architectural, planning, geographic, interactive, and graphic design training and 20 years of experience. I could make a greater, more intentional impact by proposing a plan.

My vision for a high speed rail system encourages individual states to “Renovate Our Interstates” in an organized way so that, eventually, we can have a national high-speed rail system. The Constellation Plan is focused on avoiding the current political climate of gridlock in our nation’s capital. It empowers state legislatures, industry leaders, local professionals, and governors to be motivated to create clean tech jobs and plan for smarter growth patterns. It also aspires to inspire grass-roots organizations to advocate for infrastructure and plan for growth locally. States like California, Florida, Texas, Illinois, and Washington are already leading the way. While I do support these individual efforts, I have some suggestions on improvements in the phasing, or timing of some corridors.