The best investment we could make in improving transport and land use in the US is to take 15,000 transportation engineers, spend $3,000 apiece, and give them a week touring the Netherlands.

This would only cost $45M (well less than many interchanges), and would reap a huge amount of micro- and macro-benefits as the design choice set that was considered possible would increase greatly. If this only saved 8 lives, it would be worth it as a public investment.

We should have a similar program for city officials and planners. Sadly the term “junket” has been given a bad reputation. But some non-profit should be able to come up with resources, without trying to sell anything but the idea of looking at the world differently.

There is nothing better than seeing designs with your own eyes.