American families are shrinking for all sorts of reasons, but a big one is the difficulty of schlepping a lot of children around.
Now that a guy with nine children, former Rep. Sean Duffy, might be our next transportation secretary, it may be time that we start thinking about transportation policy to make big families easier.
A fundamental step would be making it easier for children to get around without having to be driven. I call it child walkability and bikeability. I wrote about this in the spring:
“It requires building sidewalks, bike trails, playgrounds and crosswalks that are safely usable by kids. We know that is possible because much of the world already does it. We have decades of evidence from the U.S. and Europe about how best to calm traffic, make sidewalks more enjoyable and mix parks and playgrounds with commercial and residential properties.”
The Transportation Department could force states to make their state highways, including many of the major suburban roads, more friendly to children on foot and bikes. But no matter how walkable you make cities, towns, and suburbs, families will need to drive.
Car size is a problem for families with multiple children, and the inability to fit children into your car actually constrains family size. Researchers into car seat mandates recently found exactly that: Because buying a new car is expensive, when you constrain how many children a family can fit in its existing car, you cap family size for many parents.
So the Transportation Department should study whether car seat mandates are excessive. If they’re not saving lives but are deterring births, it should urge states to modify them.
But the most direct impact the DOT could have here would be dialing back fuel efficency mandates.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the DOT set rules on car fuel efficiency. These rules historically made station wagons disappear, and they have made SUVs and minivans more expensive. They’ve also made passenger vans more expensive. They also increase the costs of 12-seater and 15-seater vans — what we call Catholic Assault Vehicles.
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When the Trump administration takes over, it could dial back the fuel economy rules on cars (station wagons), light trucks (SUVs and Minivans), and heavy trucks (CAVs) to make it easier for families to afford cars big enough for the next child.
The Republican Congress could change the rules specifically to exempt family vehicles such as station wagons and minivans from these costly regulations.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
