Transportation For America » Breaking Down the Blueprint: Energy Efficiency and Energy Security, Pt. 2

Breaking Down the Blueprint: Energy Efficiency and Energy Security, Pt. 2

June 5, 2009
By Andrew Bielak

The T4 America Blueprint has six overarching national objectives to provide a new vision and guide our federal transportation policy. If our transportation system is in need of a clear purpose, these six objectives are like the rudder that will steer the ship. To ensure that we can meet these objectives and measure our progress, we created 10 performance targets — clear, quantifiable goals for the next 20 years that are tied directly to the six national objectives.

In our previous post breaking down the T4 America Blueprint, we discussed our national objective of creating an energy efficient transportation system that boosts our economy and helps America use less oil. Today, we’re going to look at this issue from a slightly different angle, by explaining how we plan to achieve this goal — and measure our success — through strong, accountable reforms.

It may seem obvious that our federal transportation program should encourage less fuel use. Unfortunately, our existing policies do the exact opposite.

Instead of giving Americans options like public transportation, high-speed rail, and walking and biking, federal policy still has a heavy bias towards new road construction, promoting more driving — even as Americans continue to drive less and use transit in record numbers. And while research shows that transferring even a moderate portion of our goods movement from trucks to rail would have a huge impact on our overall fuel use (not to mention congestion), recent federal transportation bills have done nothing to incentivize this smart and essential shift in our freight policy.

To jumpstart the needed transition to an energy-efficient transportation system and a secure economy, Transportation for America has created a road map to reform that includes strong, clear policies and programs that we recommend Congress adopt in the next transportation bill. Continue reading below the fold to learn more about some of the specific policies and programs we’re proposing to lead this transition:

Build our passenger and freight rail networks

Westbound Freight Originally uploaded by Clark Westfield

While the United States has historically lagged behind other countries in its investment in rail systems, T4 America’s Blueprint includes multiple programs to help us create a 21st Century network of passenger and freight rail infrastructure. Our Intercity Passenger Transportation program (page 35 in the Blueprint) would use a competitive grant process to create a passenger rail network to be completed by the year 2030, focusing on establishing connections between the country’s largest towns and cities.

Our Transportation Projects of National Significance program (page 40), echoed in President Obama’s plan for a National Infrastructure Bank, would fund the kinds of large-scale transportation projects that have a national scope and national benefits — but cross jurisdictions or include different modes, resulting in a level of complexity that poses a significant challenge within our current program. Projects of this scope deserve special consideration for federal funding.

This program would give priority to the projects that promote energy security, like passenger and freight rail. Additionally, the Green Freights and Ports program (page 93) would support the transition to a green, energy efficient economy by targeting federal funding to freight investments that will use less fuel and emit fewer pollutants.

Help create walkable, livable communities

Helping Americans drive less isn’t only about giving them better options — it’s also about investing in communities to make them more accessible and give people the choice of living near the office, grocery store, or their children’s school. For this reason, we’re calling for the federal government to create programs that will link up transportation investments with other issues like land use planning, housing, and economic development, (Sustainability Challenge Grants, page 42) and incentivize investment in biking and walking infrastructure (Active Transportation Innovation Program, pg. 42). Additionally, we support setting aside certain federal funds for direct investment in “livable communities” to support investment in transit-oriented development, allowing people to live closer to jobs and public transportation.

In order to ensure that our communities are accessible to transportation users, T4 America recommends that any federally funded roads should be built as “Complete Streets,” and include accommodations for bikers, pedestrians and people with disabilities, when appropriate.

Revitalize our public transportation systems

Public transportation use saves us about 1.4 billion gallons of fuel per year, according to the American Public Transportation Association. In the next transportation bill, we are fighting to get rid of the modal silos that separate funding for public transportation from spending on roads and bridges, freeing up localities, regions, and states from inflexible federal mandates to spend money on specific modes, allowing them to decide which type of investment best suits their needs for mobility.

Our Multimodal Access Program (page 87) — which breaks down into categories geographically, instead of by mode — will give communities expanded opportunities to expand their transit capacity while increasing the overall pot of money available for these investments. For significant new investments in transit, Transportation for America supports creating a Major Transit Capital program (page 39) that would create a streamlined federal review process, thereby making it much easier for local and regional governments to get federal approval for new transit projects — compared with the long, uphill battle they often face now to build transit projects.