PRESS RELEASE

City Transportation Leaders Point to Transportation Crisis Join House Transportation Chair James Oberstar to Call for New Policy
September 9th, 2008, Washington, DC. The top transportation officials from thirteen major American cities and Representative James Oberstar, the Chair of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, called today for a renewed federal focus on transportation, and new federal transportation priorities and policies. The officials pointed to a set of intersecting problems that they said added up to a looming transportation crisis for the United States:
  • Decaying infrastructure across the country
  • The federal Highway Trust Fund going bust
  • High gas prices limiting American mobility
  • Rapidly escalating costs for mass transit systems, just as Americans seek new transportation options
The city transportation commissioners, representing the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), released a platform for a new federal transportation policy (attached). The current federal transportation law expires in 2009, presenting a major opportunity for the next President and next Congress to develop strong responses to these issues.

"As we prepare to write the next surface transportation authorization bill, we find ourselves on the cusp of a transformational moment in the evolution of our surface transportation program. We face challenges in determining what the shape of our system should be and how best to finance it. To achieve this mission, we must continue to strengthen the federal role in partnering with city transportation officials to address the multitude of transportation needs, and I applaud NACTO for rising to this challenge," said Chairman Oberstar.

"Cities on are on the front-line of our transportation and infrastructure struggles," said Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation and President of the association of city transportation officials. "Metropolitan areas have most of America's infrastructure and all of our congestion, and the infrastructure funding gap and policy bottlenecks we face add up to a national problem of the first order," said Commissioner Sadik-Khan. "The federal government has got to get back in the game if we are to forge a transportation system that serves as the foundation for our economy and quality of life in the 21st Century."

The NACTO platform calls for a Federal transportation bill centered on three principles:
  • Fully funding repairs and upgrades for American roads, bridges and mass transit;
  • Leading the country in combating energy dependence and climate change; and
  • Cutting red tape and bureaucracy to deliver projects more quickly.
"With transit ridership increasing in San Francisco and across the nation, strengthening public transportation must be a national priority," said Nat Ford, Executive Director/CEO of the SFMTA. "The Federal government needs to put transit on an equal playing field with road and highway improvements."

"Cities are a big part of the solution when it comes to energy dependence and climate change," said Dan Tangherlini, Washington, DC City Administrator. "We can most easily move people in very clean and energy efficient ways, but we need federal policy and funding to acknowledge this and help us get the job done."

"Federal funding for infrastructure is critical to helping Chicago maintain its status as one of the nation's premier transportation hubs and the economic engine of the Midwest," said Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner and NACTO Vice-President Thomas G. Byrne. "Some of our largest and most important infrastructure projects, including the reconstructions of Wacker Drive and South Lake Shore Drive, wouldn't have been possible without significant and sufficient federal support."

"It's hard to exaggerate how much more expensive it is to build a new span instead of investing in the year-to-year upkeep of an older but serviceable bridge," said Rina Cutler, Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Utilities in Philadelphia. "But today we are challenged to find resources to do either one." America's investment in infrastructure is currently shrinking in terms of actual purchasing power, and is substantially less as a share of gross domestic product than many other countries. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced on Friday that the depletion of the U.S. Highway Trust Fund would start to limit the payment of federal transportation aid to state governments starting this month.

"Overly-complex procedures, check-offs and reporting can add years to actually getting federal transportation funds on the ground," said Seattle Department of Transportation Director Grace Crunican, , "The routing of all federal roadway funding through the states creates unnecessary, duplicative review for our highly capable cities. We need more transportation improvements and less paperwork." The NACTO platform calls for big cities to receive federal funding directly, if they choose.

The NACTO platform also seeks to place transportation successes in American cities into an updated federal transportation policy. With a rising tide of transportation innovation in American cities, the federal law can harness these new developments, help cities do more faster, and help spread the successes to cities and metro areas around the country.

NACTO is comprised of transportation officials from Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Formed in 1996, the group fosters information exchange between cities and articulates common interests at the national level.

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Contact:
Scott Gastel, New York City Department of Transportation, (212) 442-7033
Lindsay Ellenbogen, New York City Mayor's Office, (202) 624-5908