Compared to other metro areas, DVRPC's planning has been a relative success. On average, metro Philly commuters spend less time traveling than those in New York, Chicago, Newark, or even Riverside, Calif.

Still, in crowning the car the king of the road, DVRPC has also become the sultan of sprawl. With convenience has come pollution, the destruction of open space and the abandonment of older towns. Cities have withered, thanks in part to the DVRPC. For instead of investing in a crumbling infrastructure, urban dwellers just got in their cars, and DVRPC helped pave their way out.

DVRPC has built a transportation infrastructure that's made Philadelphia a major player in the global economy. But as oil dries up, and the cost of transportation soars, the highwaymen are now saying that we've got to take our show off the road.

For an agency fueled by federal highway funds, DVRPC's newest economic study is downright revolutionary. Called "A 'Post-Global' Economic Development Strategy" (www.dvrpc.org/planning/regional/economic.htm), its cover features not cars or highways, but pictures of energy-generating windmills and a huge image of the sun.

The sultan of sprawl has become the high priest of sustainable development. Wow.

Authored by Kevin Adams, this eloquent study provides a clear path to regional prosperity through energy independence. Adams envisions a bright future for the Delaware Valley, where manufacturing and even agriculture return to abandoned metro centers. Emerging eco-industries would be clustered to minimize commuting times. As a model region, the Delaware Valley could be branded internationally as a center for sustainability.

As Adams tells it, this isn't a pipe dream, and I believe him. Unlike other metropolitan areas, especially newer and car-dependent places, Philadelphia has an extensive network of eco-friendly trains and light rail. SEPTA, to many of us, may suck. But compared the gas-guzzling, sprawling metroplexes of the South and Southwest, Philadelphia's public transit offers great advantages. Philadelphia has, as planners like to say, "good bones," which allows businesses to use less expensive transportation.

As a region, Philadelphia also has good brains. For despite the corruption that's hamstrung the city's development, the Delaware Valley is already an international leader in green industry engineering. Since the late 1990s, says Adams, environmental consulting, life science research, industrial design, engineering and computer networking are industries that are our export strengths.

If only we applied our talents locally. Instead, Philadelphia bribes developers with tax abatements and air rights. Meanwhile, Chicago, Austin, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle are garnering green buildings by passing zoning laws that require renewable energy and sustainability.

Sustainable development, retrofitting buildings and recycling mean jobs. And there are inklings that the political class is wising up. City Council is getting ready to tackle recycling; this time, let's hope they're serious. And in Harrisburg, Gov. Rendell is aggressively funding wind, solar, biomass and other clean energy alternatives. The drive to energy independence could also jumpstart the area's languishing manufacturing base. Pennsylvania is already the leader on the East Coast for commercial wind generation, and has attracted Gamesca Corp, the second-largest wind energy company in the world. By retrofitting our existing transportation systems, we'd be creating jobs that can't be exported.

Metro Philadelphia is blessed with the climate, the resources, the infrastructure, the knowledge and the pressing need to become a model region. It's all here, and what it will take is the political vision to imagine a "post-global" future. Hey, since we're all going there anyway, we might as well arrive in style.