Gas prices continue to dominate the headlines this week, as they will for months to come, I’m sure. No one but Big Oil likes a story lead of “Pump Prices Continue Relentless Climb” – that relentless climb means record profits. Now a new poll is out showing just how much the skyrocketing gas prices are affecting Americans:

With gas up 26 percent this year to an average $3.88 a gallon, seven in 10 Americans in this ABC News/Washington Post poll report financial hardship as a result, six in 10 say they’ve cut back on driving….At 71 percent, the number of Americans who report hardship as a result of gas prices rivals its peak in ABC / Post polls, 77 percent in the summer of 2008, when gas peaked at more than $4 a gallon after a sharp 16-month run-up. Then as now, many Americans said they were driving less.

Gas prices slam mobility because we have failed to ensure Americans have mobility options. We have invested in transportation system designed around the car – more roads for more cars.

The Florida Sierra Club is taking this problem head on as they try to get Governor Rick Scott to address the state’s transportation issues with real solutions – not more roads.

In this open letter they sent to Gov. Scott last week, they point out that not only does lack of  transportation options mean more time spent sitting in traffic as our cars guzzle gas, but it means fewer people will want to come to Florida:

Florida runs on oil. As long as our state remains dependent upon oil, Floridians will continue to suffer financially as prices increase at the pump and we pay more money to fuel our vehicles….

(T)he Sunshine State has lost the opportunity to be America’s leader in 21st transportation alternatives that would have enticed new businesses and residents to locate to Florida.

Instead, your reliance on auto usage and using taxes to build more roads reflects neither innovation nor opportunity for growth. It just proves to the rest of the nation that Florida lacks commitment to attract investment and invest in quality of life for residents and visitors, relying on tired solutions (building more roads and requiring more oil) to solve 21st century transportation problems.

If states start investing in better transportation choices and federal policy demands more investment in choices, high gas prices won’t slam our mobility.

But for now, the pain is being felt. Some 58% of those from the ABC News/Washington Post are driving less and some are carpooling. Driving less is a good thing if it means combining trips and walking to the store for the gallon of milk, for example; it is a problem if it means not being able to get to work. Too few Americans have access to good transit or safe biking and walking because too many communities are planned around driving.

We need to invest in fixing these problems to ensure mobility and help us stop running on oil in Florida and across the country.

Yesterday, the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held the latest in a series of field hearings aimed at getting input from selected voices on improving and reforming our nation’s transportation system.

Committee head Rep. John Mica held this hearing in his home state of Florida.  Now, Florida is a particularly good state to hear about the need for high-speed rail as a transportation choice since Governor Rick Scott rejected federal funds last month for such a project in the Sunshine State.

It is unfortunate that officials are choosing Big Oil over solutions that can end our oil dependence. And now we’ve got new research showing that a high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando “could be operated with a healthy profit.”

The study shows that “the line connecting Tampa to Orlando would have had a $10.2 million operating surplus in 2015, its first year of operation. The study showed the line would have had a $28.6 million surplus in its 10th year.”

The Florida high-speed rail plan would have served 3.3 million riders in its first year of operation, but now those riders will be stuck in traffic burning gasoline – polluting the air, increasing our addiction to oil while sending dollars overseas to pay for oil.

We’ve been standing with concerned citizens at several of these field hearings nationwide from Ohio, California and Tennessee and, of course, in Orlando, Florida. While the field hearings didn’t necessarily include all the right voices (as two of our activists in Tennessee noted in these great OpEds, Chairman Mica did support high speed rail in Florida.

And we made sure to let him know there are supporters of good transit across the country out there: We turned in close to 1,000 comments from citizens, all calling for a transportation bill that will increase transportation choices and help end our dependence on oil.

We’re also making our voices heard about Gov. Scott’s rail rejection:

Environmental groups believe that, given the toll that roads take on natural resources, they’re counting on Scott to endorse SunRail. “We need those choices. Gov. Scott’s actions deny us choices in transportation,” Sierra Club representative Phil Compton said.

But despite Gov. Scott’s views and the loss of rail, some Florida cities are forging ahead with better transit plans.  Plus, it looks like some states want Florida’s rejected rail money for their own projects that will reduce our oil dependence and create jobs.

While we know high-speed rail is not the whole solution to transportation or $4 gallon gas, we do know it is part of a plan that moves our country beyond oil.

– Ann Mesnikoff, Director of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Campaign