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US DOT: Remarks for the Honorable Mary Peters Secretary of Transportation Portland Business Alliance Portland, or October 15, 2007 12:30 PM(M2 PressWIRE Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) RDATE:16102007 Thank you, Sandy McDonough, for that kind introduction. It is great to be in Portland with all of you. Each time I visit, I am impressed by the way people in Oregon show the kind of leadership that makes this state and this country so great. Here in Portland, I see that leadership in businesses that continue to invest and innovate. I see that leadership in local officials working hard to strengthen the regions business environment. And, I see that leadership in your commitment to developing transportation policies that support growth while enhancing quality of life. People in Washington, D.C., have a lot to learn about leadership from places like Portland. Nowhere is that more apparent to me than in the current debate about the state of the nations infrastructure in the wake of the tragic collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis back in August. While many state and local officials have already come to recognize the urgency of our transportation problems, it took a nationally televised tragedy to get people in our nations capital talking about what is wrong with our roads and bridges. We must continue to properly maintain our highways and bridges. But it would be irresponsible to say that our bridges and roads are anything but safe. Since 1994, we have successfully reduced the percentage of bridges that are structurally deficient from 19 percent to 12 percent. While the condition of our roads and bridges is getting better, there is absolutely no question that the way we invest in them is broken. Money that should be going to maintain roads, build new highways, and reduce congestion is going instead to restore lighthouses and build new museums. Washington mandates are increasingly overriding state priorities. For example, the number of earmarked projects has grown from a handful in the mid-1980s to over 6,000 in 2005 valued at a staggering $23 billion. This addiction to earmarks is an even larger problem when you consider that, on average, earmarks cover only 10 percent of the total cost of a project. Imagine how your neighbor would react if you told him you bought him a new, $300 lawnmower--all he needed to do was chip in the other $270 to make up the difference. All of this while what he really needed was a hose. Not only does Washington lack the discipline to get the money where it is needed most, but the system for financing, building, and operating roads and bridges does nothing to address the single greatest problem facing transportation the rapid growth in traffic congestion. In the early 1980s, the average commuter in Portland spent 13 hours a year stuck in traffic. Now that same commuter is spending nearly three times as many hours a total of 38 a year in delays. The story is the same across the country, with gridlock resulting in billions of lost hours and billions of gallons of wasted fuel. Delay and fuel costs, though, are only part of the story. In too many parts of the country, our roads are no longer reliable. A cross-town trip might take 30 minutes, or it might take two hours. As a result, commuters and businesses are budgeting a lot more time for each trip robbing families of valuable time together and cutting into businesses bottom lines. Instead of tackling congestion, some in Washington, D.C., have jumped at the bridge collapse to call for increases in the federal gas tax. This misses the point. Our roads are not backed up and our commutes are not unpredictable because of a lack of spending. Over the last 25 years, we have increased spending by 100 percent, even after adjusting for inflation. All the while, traffic delays in metropolitan areas have grown by almost 300 percent. And future gas tax increases will be just as ineffective in fighting the growing gridlock. Proposing new federal gas tax increases is not leadership it is ludicrous. According to recent surveys, the public overwhelmingly opposes the idea of raising them. They have no confidence that their gas taxes which go into the Highway Trust Fund will be spent either wisely or well. Washingtons misplaced priorities have caused Americans to lose trust in the trust fund. They are tired of paying for excellent bridges to nowhere and horrible commutes to everywhere else. And I do not blame them one bit. Americans are also growing increasingly concerned with our reliance on foreign sources of oil, saving fuel, and a cleaner environment. So, it also makes absolutely no sense to raise the gas tax at a time when we are exploring every feasible way to increase energy independence, promote fuel economy in automobiles, stimulate alternative fuel development, and reduce emissions. We need a new approach, and the sooner the better. We need the kind of leadership that says the people stuck in traffic every day on 26, 99W, or I-5 ought to be making the decisions about where to build new roads and how to pay for them. We need the kind of leadership that is willing to explore new ways to pay for road projects that not only generate revenue for re-investment but actually reduce congestion and protect the environment at the same time. We need to begin acknowledging that we can substantially reduce traffic congestion and that we can do it in most cases in a matter of months. We only need to convince five-to-10 percent of the people on a rush-hour highway to shift trip times or travel plans in order to largely solve the congestion problem. It is not such a heavy lift when you consider that new data shows that almost half of the people on a rush-hour highway are not taking work trips, and almost a quarter are retired. But we cannot wish people off rush-hour roads just because they may have flexible schedules. We need to look instead at innovative measures like mileage fees or electronic tolling, which use technology to adjust road charges based on miles traveled, the time of day, or traffic levels. Cell phone companies bill for the minutes we actually use and create capacity by charging us during peak hours and giving us free weekend minutes. Why cant we do the same for our roads? The revenues generated from these tolls will allow us to expand highways and transit systems in the same corridors where the money originated. That makes a lot more sense than sending the money to Washington where strings are attached and administrative costs are taken out before it can come back to Oregon. The Beaver State is ahead of the curve in recognizing that the gas tax is the relic of a by-gone era. People here are not waiting for people in Washington, D.C., to talk our way out of traffic or declining gas tax receipts. Instead of spending endless time and relentless rhetoric debating the issue, leaders here in Oregon are taking chances and doing something creative about traffic and transportation funding. Over the past year, this states Road User Fee Pilot tested a new way to pay for roads, which relied on GPS and other advanced technology to administer the program and collect the per-mile fees as an alternative to the gas tax. Preliminary results show that 91 percent of those surveyed said they would pay a mileage fee if the program were expanded statewide. Innovative approaches like this and other options like congestion pricing can provide substantial traffic, environmental, and energy saving benefits. But, these are just the beginning. There are many ways to reduce the enormous costs of congestion, and to raise funds more effectively than the gas tax does to help states and cities build and maintain critical roads, bridges, and transit systems. Oregon recognizes these options and is taking yet another innovative approach to improving the movement of people and products by joining with California and Washington state to reduce regional congestion along Interstate-5. In fact, I-5 was recently selected as one of the Departments Corridors of the Future as part of our national congestion relief effort. Under this program, the I-5 corridor will receive approximately $15 million to invest in the Columbia border crossing. This major bottleneck causes over 600,000 hours of delay for trucks annually. Improving the movement of freight between Oregon and Washington will pay enormous dividends for this city and this region. These creative approaches demand that all of us think differently about highways. We need to come to terms with the fact that there is no such thing as a free highway. More importantly, we need to come to terms with the fact that these approaches require leadership leadership to recognize that our current policies are broken, leadership to embrace new ways to fund and manage our roads, and leadership to stake reputations on promises to cut traffic. Oregon is demonstrating that kind of leadership. And there is no better time than now for the rest of the country to follow suit. Let us turn the tragedy of the I-35W bridge collapse into something positive. Let us forget the broken tactics of the past. Let us embrace new solutions designed to meet todays challenges. And let us do everything we can to support and encourage more of the kind of leadership it is going to take to make our roads work for us again. Americans want and deserve leadership. Let us give it to them. ((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to [email protected])). Copyright 2007 M2 Communications Ltd. |