Transportation in the United States is currently receiving some much-needed attention. The passing of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act by Congress in October 2008, and the subsequent approval of a multitude of public transit initiatives nationwide during the November 2008 election reveal wide popular support for modern mass transportation. Transit ridership is up despite the economic downturn.

All this is important news in a country where the "fly/drive" mentality has dominated transportation policy, while railroads, waterways, and other means of moving people have taken a back seat. Extreme fluctuations in oil and gasoline prices, environmental concerns, danger of terrorism, and the need for safe and economical ways to transport growing numbers of people have led to a major rethinking of national mobility issues.

The question is: how to take the complexities of coordinating a transit strategy and turn it into something that will truly meet people's needs?

After years of entrenched thinking on any subject, it can seem difficult to think outside the box or, in this case, outside the airplane and automobile. A fresh perspective can be attained by acknowledging God, creative Mind and Soul, as the limitless source of useful ideas.

SUPPLIED BY GOD'S GRACE

A recurring obstacle to new transportation projects is the question, "Who will pay for it?" Typically, private industry expects government agencies to foot the bill, government wants industry to chip in, and the public fears they will bear the burden. Focusing solely on material resources, which are inherently limited, tends to block one's view of spiritual answers. God, infinite Mind, knows no want or limitation of good. Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health, "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul" (p. 60).

These infinite resources of Soul are always right at hand. The Bible abounds with stories of people and even nations whose needs were met when it was realized that not money, but God's grace, is the source of supply. One hint about how to approach the need for funds is in the account of Elisha and an impoverished widow. Instead of offering her assistance from his own resources, or suggesting that the widow borrow money, he said, "What hast thou in the house?" All the woman could see was a single pot of oil. But the prophet recognized its great value as a resource provided by God. Following his advice, she had her sons collect many empty containers, and filled every one from that pot of oil. As a result, she was able to sell the oil to pay her debts with some left over for her to live on (see II Kings 4:1–7).

This realization of good already at hand met her need without financial burden to herself or to her community. Likewise, when individuals in a community consciously value improved mass transit, prayer can open the way for newly discovered resources to be revealed. This is an effective way to challenge the assumption that transit systems cannot be operated profitably, or that they must compete with each other and with other programs for limited funds.

COOPERATION VERSUS COMPETITION

In Europe and Japan, transit systems have been developed based on the concept of intermodalism, in which the different modes of transportation complement each other to form an integrated network. In the US, however, there is a tradition of competition within these various modes. In addition, transportation agencies and advocacy groups, corporations, communities, and environmentalists often constitute competing interests.

It may be helpful to consider that the word competition originated from the Latin competere, which means "strive together," "come together," "agree." The modern sense of competition, however, implies many minds in conflict. But each of us is in fact spiritual, the idea of one infinite divine intelligence, Mind. Under Mind's watchful care, all creation functions in harmony, for the purpose of blessing one another. As Mrs. Eddy put it, "The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity" (Science and Health, p. 571). Progress that benefits all will result.

SAFETY COUNTS

Safety is essential to public acceptance of transportation development. The widely reported fatal collision on the Washington, DC, Metro, and a subsequent spate of crashes on transit systems in Boston, San Francisco, and elsewhere, have raised questions about the competence of transit vehicle operators, and the effectiveness of fail-safe devices.

As in competition, so in safety, it is the common acceptance of many minds in conflict that prayer can correct. "Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection," says Science and Health (p. 424). To the degree that we understand that the one all-harmonious Mind is present with designers, operators, and passengers, accidents will abate. Also, individual prayer for passenger safety, for the alertness of drivers, and other employees of transportation systems can only bless all involved.

PRAYER-BASED PROGRESS

Resistance to progress is all too familiar, especially when progress takes the form of futuristic ideas. Subtler than resistance to new ideas is resistance to revisiting old ones. Opposition to rail passenger initiatives, for instance, is based on the conventional wisdom of the 1960s, still latent in thought, that airlines and superhighways have rendered railroads obsolete.

No one wants to be backward or old-fashioned. But Christian Science makes clear that God's ideas are neither young nor old, and are ever useful and indestructible. "Behold," declares the Spirit, "I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5). Thus, it is not necessarily a backward step if supposedly old ideas are reconsidered and re-envisioned with inspiration. On this basis, the venerable electric trolley car has been successfully reinvented as the LRV (Light Rail Vehicle), lanes for bicycles have proliferated on city streets, and catamarans and other modern "water taxis" carry commuters across urban harbors once plied by traditional double-ender ferry boats.

"... progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil" (Science and Health, p. 233). Prayerful affirmation of this truth will help promote receptivity to and acceptance of progressive transportation concepts, and may even open the way for updated traditional ideas to find favor along with such exotic futuristic innovations as magnetic levitation and solar-powered vehicles.

Forward movement is the essence of transportation; the annihilation of time and space is its goal. In an age when travel was slow and largely by foot, Jesus overcame those limitations. When he walked on water to reach his disciples, who were in a boat on a tempestuous sea, the disciples "willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went" (John 6:21).

This ideal demonstration of personal mobility may be in advance of human understanding even in this high-speed age of bullet trains and supersonic flight. But Jesus' example assures us that when we willingly, prayerfully welcome the healing power of the Christ into the vessel of our thought, we can confidently expect to expeditiously arrive at progressive and perhaps unanticipated solutions regarding transportation. |css