The Irrational Planning Process
15th August 2023
First, planners identify a solution they want to implement. It might be light rail or high-speed rail, it might be urban densification, or it might be something like complete streets or vision zero.
Second, planners cast around for problems that they think they might be able to persuade people their proposal will solve. These can include childhood obesity, global warming, traffic congestion, or housing affordability.
Third, they use public involvement techniques designed to generate support for their plans. One such technique is the charente, a meeting in which planners strictly control the agenda to make sure that people only consider questions the planners want to answer. At the charities, planners might ask, “Do you want more congestion or less?” or “Do you want higher housing costs or lower?” Since they assume their proposals will reduce congestion or housing costs, if you answer less congestion or lower housing costs, they will claim that you support their plans.
Another technique is a survey with a limited number of questions. The San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Commission wants to increase taxes to subsidize transit, so it is asking residents to fill out a survey. The survey never asks if people want to pay more taxes; instead the higher tax is a given. Instead, it asks how people want to spend the money. There are five possible answers: transit, transit, bike lanes, transit, and transit.
Actually, this is a good description of any Democrat-dominated political regime devoted to increasing government power and government employee paychecks.