By
Ilicia J. Balaban
It's
hard to remember that transportation was once an engine of American
progress. Railroads opened the West, and automobiles brought mobility
to a footloose generation after World War II.
Nowadays, getting
around is a source of more problems than solutions.
In Connecticut's
major metropolitan areas, traffic delays waste as much as 31 hours a
year for commuters -- almost an entire work week and more than twice
as much as in 1985. The major source of our addiction to expensive
foreign oil, transportation consumes two out of every three barrels
and is the fastest-growing source of global-warming pollution. The
high cost of oil and our crumbling infrastructure are drags on the
economy. And the once-flush federal transportation trust fund, like
many of its state counterparts, is expected to run out of money in
the next two years.
Since fulfilling
President Eisenhower's 1956 vision of an interstate system to link
our major cities, national transportation policy has stumbled on
without a clear purpose. Federal transportation spending has become
little more than a giant public works program.
To keep our nation
moving efficiently, the federal government must ensure dedicated
funding and hold states accountable for roadway upkeep. The
responsibility today is left almost entirely up to states, where it
competes for scarce dollars with popular programs and typically loses
out to expensive projects that offer big headlines and ribbon-cutting
ceremonies.
Federal
transportation funds also continue to be distributed through the
false assumption that more is better when it comes to roadways.
States receive
highway funds based on three outdated criteria: the previous year's
gasoline consumption, lane-miles of federal highways and the previous
year's vehicle miles traveled. So more driving garners more federal
dollars. States that do their part to reduce America's oil dependence
and global warming would lose out on federal dollars.
The federal
government should instead reward states and localities that reduce
gas consumption and miles driven by emphasizing public
transportation. Light rail, rapid bus transit, commuter rail,
high-speed intercity rail and other forms of public transit are
energy efficient and encourage development patterns that require less
driving.
Giving people the
transportation choices they want will require Congress, Gov. M. Jodi
Rell and the Legislature to make changes. Since 1956, federal, state
and local governments have spent nine times more on highway subsidies
than on public transportation.
This ratio has
improved, but not fast enough. And President Bush proposes to take us
back in time by cutting transit money, slashing Amtrak's budget and
raiding the Transit Trust Fund to pay for highways. Such cuts would
move the country in exactly the wrong direction.
Congress will have a
golden opportunity when the current transportation authorization bill
expires next year. Public leaders must recognize that our
transportation problems stem from a lack of purpose. They must
rewrite policy to address contemporary problems of rapidly aging
infrastructure, urban congestion, oil dependence and an overheating
planet.
Instead of simply
"reauthorizing" the transportation act with higher
spending, Congress must reinvent how it funds transportation.
Ilicia J. Balaban is
transportation associate at ConnPIRG, a statewide public interest
organization.
