Florida Transportation Magazine

A clean and historic break with the past is needed to encourage the future vitality of our country’s transportation network, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters, who recently unveiled the Bush Administration’s new plan to refocus, reform and renew the national approach to highway and transit systems in America. 

“Without a doubt, our federal approach to transportation is broken. And no amount of tweaking, adjusting or adding new layers on top will make things better,” Peters says. “It is time for a new, a different and a better approach.”      

                                                                                    
The Secretary says the plan sets a course for reforming the nation’s transportation programs by outlining a renewed federal focus on maintaining and improving the Interstate highway system, instead of diverting funds for wasteful pet projects and for programs clearly not federal priority areas like restoring lighthouses. 

Addressing urban congestion and giving greater flexibility to state and local leaders to invest in their most needed transit and highway priorities is another key focus of the reform plan, she added. Local leaders will have greater freedom and significantly more resources to fund new subways, bus routes or highways as they choose, based on the needs of local commuters instead of the dictates of Washington. 

“Our plan creates an easier and more sustainable way to pay for and build roads and transit systems,” Peters explains. “It will deliver fewer traffic tie ups, better transit services, a stronger economy, and a cleaner environment. It will make our roads safer and give Americans a new confidence that the money they invest in transportation will actually deliver results.” 

As part of the focus on congestion, the plan would create a Metropolitan Innovation Fund that rewards cities willing to combine a mix of effective transit investments, dynamic pricing of highways and new traffic technologies. 

The reform plan also calls for greatly reducing more than 102 federal transportation programs which have proliferated  over the last two decades replacing them with eight comprehensive, comprehensive, intermodal programs that will help focus instead of dilute investments, and cut the dizzying red-tape forced upon local planners, she said.  

Peters maintains that a hallmark of the plan is a refocused and redoubled emphasis on safety, using a data and technology-driven approach that also gives states maximum flexibility to tackle their toughest safety challenges.  Using a data-driven approach, she said, we are, and must continue focusing on issues that put drivers, commercial drivers, passengers and pedestrians at risk, including crashes involving drunk drivers, motorcycles, work zones and rural roads.

And, to improve the current 13year average it takes to design and build new highway and transit projects in the United States, the Secretary said the federal review process would be streamlined to ask the same stringent environmental and planning questions, but get answers more quickly.

Peters further emphasized that central to any reform for transportation is finding new revenue sources to supplement the unpredictable and unsustainable gas tax; in order to fund maintenance and pay for new needed projects. She says the gas tax is an antiquated mechanism, underscored by the current climate of high gas prices. Americans are driving less and taking advantage of transit options, but less driving also results in less revenue for transit operations.

Secretary Peters said more direct pricing options like tolling are needed and states must be empowered to take advantage of the more than $400 billion available worldwide for infrastructure investments from the private sector. “The idea is simple: use federal funds to encourage new sources of investments for transportation, instead of replacing them,” she said.

The Secretary said the plan outlines the Administrations’ framework for completely overhauling the way U.S. transportation decisions and investments are made, and is intended to spur local, state and federal debate about how best to incorporate the new reforms into surface transportation legislation slated to be considered by Congress in 2009.

“If we can show commuters that there is a better way to fund and operate transportation systems—better ways to get long dreamed of  projects off the books and into reality — then they will believe again.  If they see a system with easy transit connections and reliable service, they will invest in it.  And if they see roads that flow, even in the morning and evening, they will pay for them.”

She has been briefing members of Congress on the contents of the plan.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues on Capitol Hill over the next few months to really explore the innovative ideas contained in this proposal,” Secretary Peters said. “While I understand that this plan ( “US DOT” continued )represents a significant departure from the status quo, I hope that Congress will shed partisan labels and come together to consider a piece of legislation that will keep our transportation system viable well into the next decade.”

The Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure James Oberstar however maintains the Administration’s plan “is a collection of the same uninspired and uninspiring policies the administration has offered over the past five years:  toll it, privatize it, lease it, sell it or congestion price it.”

Congressman John Mica of Central Florida, the ranking Republican on the committee, says he believes the proposal is “a good starting point for the upcoming debate on the reauthorization of the Highway and Transit programs.  The proposal simplifies the existing federal highway and transit programs by eliminating or consolidating some of the more than 100 surface transportation programs and addresses problems that are widely recognized in the transportation community.“

The proposal calls for streamlining federal review process for new transportation projects, something I’ve been calling for years.  It currently takes 13 years to design and build new highway projects, but the I-35 W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last summer will be rebuilt in 437 days.  We need to adopt a model that allows other projects to be built as quickly and this proposal takes steps in that direction,” the congressman adds.

For more information or to view the entire proposal go to: http://www.fightgridlocknow.gov/reform/reformproposal08.pdf