What does Oberstar’s proposal do for the New Starts transit program?
June 18, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
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| MetroRail, Preston Station, Downtown Houston Originally uploaded by euthman |
| Riders wait for the train at a stop on Houston’s new light rail line |
Americans are taking the train (and the bus) like never before, and public transportation ridership reached its highest level in more than 50 years in 2008. More than 25 new light rail or streetcar systems have opened in the last 30 years, and communities across the country are looking to relieve congestion, spur urban development, and provide their residents with more options for getting around.
In the last two years, new light rail lines have opened in what might be considered the unlikely locales of Phoenix, Arizona, Houston, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina. According to numbers from Reconnecting America, the newly-opened Hiawatha Line in Minneapolis and the Red Line in Houston outperformed their ridership projections 15 years ahead of schedule.
What’s clear from these examples is that cities of all sizes are looking to meet the burgeoning demand for quality public transportation service. Of course, with Chairman James Oberstar’s 90-page proposal for the next transportation bill coming out this morning from the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, we are left with an important question — how would these current or future transit systems fare under his proposed program?
Getting approval for New and Small Starts — two federal programs that distribute funds for the construction of transit capital projects — has become a cumbersome process, taking an average of 10 years for transit projects to move through planning and design phases to receive a grant.
Under the previous administration, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) began unduly weighting cost-effectiveness (CEI) — or how much travel time was saved per dollar spent — as the primary factor when considering which projects to fund. As Oberstar’s proposal states, this method has given “inadequate consideration to other important benefits that new transit projects bring to communities.” Benefits such as economic development spurred by new transit lines, increased access to jobs and housing, reduced emissions and energy consumption per capita and the efficient land use and walkable neighborhoods that often result from new transit investments have been swept aside in favor of this “cost effectiveness” metric.
Chairman Oberstar’s proposal for the transportation bill contains some proposed revisions to the New/Small Starts program that could speed up the approval process and make sure that all of the benefits of new public transportation service are considered.
Oberstar’s proposal contains two key reforms: The first would streamline the program application and approval process by eliminating overly burdensome steps and paperwork. (p.43) And perhaps more importantly, his second proposal “equalizes the treatment of proposed transit projects and elevates the importance of the benefits that will occur in the community once the project is built.” This essentially means that the other positive benefits from transit would be considered when deciding what projects to fund.
Underneath that recommendation in the proposal is a list of some new requirements that could even the playing field and broaden the range of grants given out to new transit projects. Here are three notable ones:
- Require the FTA to consider all benefits of proposed projects in relation to the proposed Federal investment level.
- Eliminate the requirement that projects be rated based on “cost-effectiveness,” which considers time savings to users as the only benefit of projects.
- Require FTA to weigh all benefits comparably, including economic development, energy savings, increased mobility and access, and congestion relief.
Hopefully, these two reforms would streamline the New & Small Starts process and ensure that the federal governments considers more of the benefits that transit brings to communities when deciding which projects to fund. But the details in the full bill will be key. The outline lacks some concrete information on how much focus will be placed on creating transit-oriented development and affordable housing — both of which can help boost ridership numbers and cost-effectiveness. If we want to accurately account for all potential benefits of transit investments, T4 America believes that we need to link development, housing and public transportation to reflect the deep connection between these issues.
Some details on Chairman Oberstar’s transportation proposal
June 18, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
| Read T4 America’s official statement on the release of the summary outline by Chairman James Oberstar. |
We’ll have a number of posts today and tomorrow breaking down some of the notable spending levels and reforms proposed in Chairman Oberstar’s outline of the transportation bill. In the meantime, we thought we’d give you a few details that we’ve looked over while scanning the outline of the bill this morning. Note that today’s 11 a.m. press conference — which will included a longer version of the proposal — has been delayed until 2 p.m. due to “House votes.”
According to Oberstar’s summary, the upcoming bill will restructure and transform federal transportation policy away from multiple “prescriptive programs” into a “performance-based framework” “designed to achieve specific national objectives.”
The outline calls for terminating and consolidating more than 75 of the 108 total programs into a few broad large program areas, but it maintains current funding silos between separate modes. Here’s a quick breakdown. (Remember that these numbers are not final, and could be very different when the bill is released next week.)
- Highways: $337.4 billion (75%) of $450 billion
- Transit: $98.8 billion (22.2%) of $450 billion
- Safety Programs: $12.6 billion (2.8%) of $450 billion
Its important to note that the $98.8 billion in proposed transit funds is not necessarily an accurate reflection of how much money public transportation would receive in total. Oberstar’s outline includes $50 billion for a new “Metropolitan Mobility and Access Program,” which will “provide significant funding to help the largest metropolitan regions address congestion,” and a refocused “Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program” (CMAQ). While money for both of these programs are included in the highway allocation, it would be possible under the proposal to spend these funds on public transportation projects to achieve the stated goals of CMAQ and the Metropolitan Mobility programs.
Chairman Oberstar’s outline also calls for $50 billion to develop high-speed rail — in addition to the money in the stimulus package and yearly appropriations bill for this year — an area of transportation that has never received funding in previous transportation legislation.
Oberstar told Congressional Quarterly this morning that he is still planning on releasing full bill text and marking up the bill in his Highways and Transit Subcommittee next week.
Check back later today for more details and analysis.
Transportation bill summary hits the streets
June 18, 2009By Andrew Bielak
| Transportation Bill Outline (Condensed — 10 pages) (.PDF) |
| Transportation Bill Outline (Full Version — 86 pages) (.PDF) |
| Recommended Program Consolidations (.PDF) |
UPDATED: The 11 a.m. press conference has been moved to 2 p.m., due to “House votes” according to Rep. Oberstar’s Twitter feed. In addition to posting the short 10-page document, we’ve also now included the full 86-page outline of the proposal.
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A 10-page summary of the transportation bill draft is out this morning from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The bill outline, entitled the “Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009,” is available at right, alongside a second document that describes the myriad programs which being recommended for consolidation under the new bill.
Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the T & I Committee, is holding a press conference in about one hour at 11:00 a.m. in which a more detailed, 100-page outline of the bill will be released. (Check back here for a link or download.) No word yet on how LaHood’s recommendation that the current bill be extended for 18 months will affect the legislation coming out of the House.
As we speak, our policy experts are diving into the bill to get all the good details and analysis — so stay tuned for more information throughout the day.
Updated news on the transportation bill outline release
June 16, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
After much back-and-forth on times and dates today, we think this information is pretty solid: Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar is holding an invitation-only press conference Wednesday, June 17th at 11 a.m. to talk with invited media outlets about the white paper and outline for the upcoming transportation bill.
24 hours later, on Thursday, June 18th at 11 a.m., he’s going to hold an open press conference (we’ll be there) to do the same thing all over again with everyone else.
We have heard that Chairman Oberstar is releasing a 12-page paper and a 100-page outline of the bill over the next two days and it’s likely that at least one of those — probably the shorter white paper — will be released Wednesday at 11 a.m for the first briefing.
As always, check in with our Twitter feed @T4America for the most up-to-the-minute news.
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