Capitol Archives - Transportation For America

Shining a spotlight on the nation’s strapped transportation fund this Wednesday

It’s not a new story by now: states and local governments stand to lose nearly all access to federal transportation support next year if Congress doesn’t act to shore up the nation’s transportation fund sometime before the end of the summer. So far, we’ve mostly talked about this as a national story, but make no mistake: insolvency would have huge impacts on local communities.

To explore the issue in that light, we’re supporting a bipartisan briefing pulled together by two key House members, Reps. Richard Hanna (R-NY) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), on the upcoming expiration of the current transportation law (MAP-21) and the aforementioned shortfall of the Highway Trust Fund. The panel this Wednesday for Hill staffers and media will include three local leaders who understand that investments in transportation are catalysts for development and economic success, using their perspective to localize the impacts of this story.

One story to be shared is the same one featured right here today in this new profile on our website:

Normal, Illinois

A medium-sized city in central Illinois was one of the first to utilize a new, experimental program of competitive federal transportation grants to help implement a city-backed, city-led plan for revitalizing their downtown with a new transportation and civic centerpiece for the town. It’s a successful model of exactly the kind of investments the federal transportation program should be supporting, and proof that it’s not always just big projects in big cities leading the way. Read the full story here

What Mayor Koos from Normal, Illinois shares in that profile is the same message all three local leaders will bring to Washington on Wednesday: No matter how motivated and inspired, the American public and business community cannot do this alone. They need a federal partner that ensures their plans can be realized to provide businesses the opportunity to compete in today’s global economy and allow people to efficiently access jobs and markets.

Also at the briefing will be Sarah Puro, an expert from the Congressional Budget Office, who will share a CBO analysis of the status of the Highway Trust Fund and the choices facing Congress regarding spending from and revenues collected by the fund.

Briefing panelists include The Honorable Chris Koos, Mayor of Normal Illinois; Marc Hill, Chief Policy Officer of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce; Charles Hunsicker, Director of Manatee County Florida Parks and Natural Resources, and Sarah Puro, Principal Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Be sure to follow us on Twitter on Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. to hear a few highlights, and watch this space for a short wrap-up after the briefing.

Today’s briefing on Complete Streets — and the view from Decatur, Georgia

Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd Originally uploaded by TimothyJ

Mayor Bill Floyd of Decatur, Georgia helped get complete streets policies adopted in his city, resulting in a safer, more livable enjoyable city. Tell your representatives to support the Complete Streets Act of 2009 in the House and Senate.

With the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and a few of our key partners this morning, Transportation for America held a briefing on Capitol Hill about Complete Streets — and how putting complete streets into the next transportation bill will go a long way towards improving health, safety and livability for Americans.

Tell your representatives to support the Complete Streets Act of 2009 in the House and Senate.

Decatur, Georgia Mayor Bill Floyd, one of the panelists, told the story of how building complete streets in Decatur have made the city safer and more livable for its residents and visitors. Decatur, a city of about 18,000 just six miles east of downtown Atlanta, adopted ‘complete streets’ policies to ensure that their roadways get designed and improved for all users. But it wasn’t easy to do, and Mayor Floyd said they still face numerous hurdles from the state government.

Why do we need a federal law? Because current plans require variances from GDOT (Georgia Department of Transportation). For every project, it takes a variance. If we got a bike and sidewalk approved, and went back for another one, we’d have to get another variance. Federal laws are applied differently from state to state even.

Just like many Georgia cities, it has several state-maintained highways that pass through it. And those get treated the same way by the Georgia Department of Transportation whether they run through urban Decatur or rural south Georgia.

He pointed specifically to a mid-block crosswalk in downtown — where pedestrians come and go all day long from the MARTA transit hub, shops, and restaurants — with a raised crosswalk and a yield sign in the road between the lanes of traffic. He pointed to a photo of the crossing and noted “that mid-lane crossing sign is in violation of GDOT — they call it a vehicle impediment.” They succeeded in getting the road de-classified as a state highway — a long, difficult process, but one that resulted in them being able to control the design of the road.

One of the biggest reasons why Decatur wants streets safe for walking and biking has to do with their 3,000 children. The city, while only 4 square miles in size, has its own school system with pre-K all the way up to Decatur High School right off the city square. As a result many kids in the city should be within a mile of their school, and those children should be able to walk or bike to school. “Kids love to walk to school and ride those bikes,” Mayor Floyd said. But the streets just weren’t safe enough.

They utilized money in the Safe Routes to School Program (yes, the one proposed for cuts) to improve the safety of their streets, giving kids the chance to be outside and get some incidental exercise on their way to and from school.

Research shows that well-designed sidewalks, bike lanes, intersections, and other street features to accommodate all modes of travel can significantly reduce injuries, deaths, and automobile crashes. Communities adopting the complete streets approach are discovering additional benefits including higher rates of physical activity among residents—an important factor for improved health—and more vibrant business districts and neighborhoods.

Tell your representatives to support the Complete Streets Act of 2009 in the House and Senate.

Transportation For America officially launches campaign platform

Today in Washington, D.C., Transportation for America held an event on Capitol Hill to formally announce our new coalition of more than 225 organizations and 17,000 individual members and to release the platform drafted with input from dozens of practitioners and stakeholders. In opening remarks, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) called the coalition perhaps the “most formidable” such coalition assembled on behalf of transportation reform.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer addressed the guests and VIP’s gathered in the Capitol Caucus Room of the Cannon House Office Building

With events last night and this morning on Capitol Hill, we brought together leaders in the worlds of transportation, public health, business and social justice to launch the platform.

Our campaign platform calls on President Obama and Congress to launch a new federal transportation mission that breaks with the worn out ways of the status quo, helps put an end to America’s oil dependency, brings opportunity to all Americans and allows our country’s businesses to compete and thrive in the 21st Century.

Other panelists, including Dr. Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association, Judith Bell of PolicyLink, Richard Baron of McCormack Baron Salazar and Transportation for America campaign director James Corless, spoke on behalf of the public health benefits, implications for real estate development and the need for local areas to have greater latitude to address their mobility issues.

Mayor John Robert Smith of Meridian, Mississippi — a city that has worked hard to turn their rail connections into downtown reinvestment and vice versa — spoke at length about the need for the next phase of our transportation system to unite our country in the same way that Eisenhower envisioned the interstate system would help a collection of States be unified as a truly “United” States of America:

Few national issues offer a greater opportunity for imaginative change. And we need a Congress that will reach across the aisle that separates their parties, and reach across the geography that separate their states. These issues are complex and daunting, but we must act and act now. Our children and children’s children will hold us accountable. To fail would be to leave this nation as Eisenhower said, “As many separate parts.”

Dr. Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association shows off his copy of the Platform.

The Platform is now available for you to download and read.

But more importantly, join us in urging Congress and the Obama adminstration to consider our platform as they move towards writing this year’s transportation bill. Add your voice to thousands of others urging a new direction for transportation!

Also today, the National Association of Realtors released a poll done in conjunction with Transportation for America that shows strong support for investment in public transportation, walking and biking and a better-managed and maintained highway system. Read the details about the NAR/T4 poll.

Transportation for America also announced that the coalition will launch a series of town hall meetings and provide materials for self-organized house parties where engaged citizens can talk about what a renewed national vision for transportation investment could mean for their communities. Watch here for more to come on that over the next several days and weeks.

Mayor John Robert Smith of Meridian, Mississippi, left, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer take their respective turns at the mic this morning on Capitol Hill.

Photos licensed with Creative Commons by Steve Davis/Transportation for America