Peters describes plan for surface bill

NITL (The National Industrial Transportation League) -- Logistics Management, 8/5/2008 2:43:00 PM

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters unveiled July 29 the Bush Administration’s new plan to “refocus, reform and renew the national approach to highway and transit systems in America.” The plan was immediately panned by the Democratic chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

“Without a doubt, our federal approach to transportation is broken. And no amount of tweaking, adjusting or adding new layers on top will make things better,” Transportation Secretary Peters said in launching the plan. “It is time for a new, a different and a better approach.”

Peters said the plan sets a course for reforming the nation’s transportation programs by outlining a renewed federal focus on maintaining and improving the Interstate highway system, instead of diverting funds for wasteful pet projects and for programs clearly not federal priority areas like restoring lighthouses.

Addressing urban congestion and giving greater flexibility to state and local leaders to invest in their most needed transit and highway priorities is another key focus of the reform plan, Peters said. Local leaders will have greater freedom and significantly more resources to fund new subways, bus routes or highways as they choose, based on the needs of local commuters instead of the dictates of Washington.

As part of this focus on congestion, the plan would create a Metropolitan Innovation Fund that rewards cities willing to combine a mix of effective transit investments, dynamic pricing of highways and new traffic technologies, Peters said.

The Transportation Department (DOT) said the plan also calls for greatly reducing 102 existing federal transportation programs that have proliferated over the last two decades, and replacing them with eight comprehensive intermodal programs that will cut red-tape.

Would you like a complete update of what's happening inside the beltway every week? Do you want to become engaged in the transportation policy debate? Join the League!