Why Do We Care About the Chris Christie Scandal So Much? Transportation!

In light of Chris Christie’s George Washington Bridge scandal, we’ve learned one thing: transportation can make or break an elected official. Emily Badger, a writer for The Atlantic Cities, focuses on the idea that “[h]ow we get around has an enormous influence on our quality of life, and so it’s central to what we expect from our elected officials.” Transportation may be the most influential aspect on our daily lives because without the ability to travel, we cannot do much of anything.

Transportation is an important issue for many Americans because it involves so many elements such as “parking policy, street design, traffic management and mass transit planning.” This makes it a hard subject for any elected official to ignore. So, if the scandal was surrounding a different topic such as a development project, it may have not been so widely circulated across the US.  But, as it is, the entire country is focused on the importance of transportation issues at the political level.