May 24, 2010

From 1996 to 2008, overall rail trips in Los Angeles have increased 150 percent, with light rail growing 90 percent, heavy rail growing 275 percent (after opening subway legs to Hollywood, Universal City, and North Hollywood), and commuter rail growing 126 percent. According to the 2008 National Transit Database Los Angeles ranks third in the nation in total transit boardings (474 million), trailing only New York City and Chicago. It is ranked tenth in rail boarding.

The United States must transform our transportation infrastructure to make our systems more energy efficient, less reliant on foreign oil, and more environmentally sensitive and sustainable. Transportation contributes more than two-thirds of our nation's oil consumption and nearly a third of our carbon dioxide emissions.

This means going forward, transportation investments must address energy and climate concerns, through needed shifts and reforms in federal policies and programs that emphasize sustainable transportation investments, beginning with -

• Integrating transportation, housing, the environment, and economic development and land use;

• Increased investments in transit capital projects to begin meeting the escalating demand and mitigate decades of underinvestment; and

• Dedicated revenue for planning and development of high'speed intercity passenger rail.

For additional information on the Conference of Mayors transportation priorities, contact Ron Thaniel, Assistant Executive Director for Transportation Policy, at rthaniel@usmayors.org.