The United States Conference of Mayors Investing in Metropolitan Areas to Meet 21st Century Transportation Challenges
Prepared for the Federal Surface Transportation Reauthorization
January 31, 2011
Our nation's surface transportation system is broken. Because the nation has failed to invest in transportation infrastructure in metropolitan areas, families spend too much time in traffic and businesses cannot efficiently move their products to market. Rebuilding transportation infrastructure is a priority for mayors. It will create jobs and will ensure that metropolitan economies emerge from the recession, and, in turn, the nation's economy.
Transportation consumes two-thirds of the nation's oil supply and is responsible for a third of carbon dioxide emissions. This is why mayors urge President Obama and the Congress to redeploy existing resources and commit new resources to making tomorrow's transportation infrastructure more energy efficient, more sustainable and less reliant on foreign oil.
Direct Federal Partnership with Metropolitan Areas
The transportation reauthorization should establish a mode-neutral Metropolitan Congestion Program to ensure increased commitments are made to transportation projects that reduce congestion in metropolitan areas. The federal government should leverage local and private investments in transportation infrastructure, and accelerate the benefits of those investments to metropolitan areas. The TIGER program should be continued in the reauthorization with increased funding to reflect its overwhelming demand.
Transit Access and high-speed Intercity Passenger Rail
Federal investments in transit bus and rail operations and systems should increase in order to meet growing demand and mitigate decades of underinvestment. There should be dedicated funding for high-speed intercity passenger rail - equal to the investment made a half-century ago building the Interstate Highway System.
Rebuilding Metropolitan Transportation Infrastructure
The federal government should establish a state-of-good repair program to preserve, rehabilitate, and replace transportation infrastructure in metropolitan areas.
Integrated Planning
Transportation must make a positive contribution to livability, public health, and economic viability of metropolitan areas by integrating transportation, housing, environmental, and economic development while reducing traffic and carbon dioxide emissions.
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