Transportation Reauthorization
Detail your services
Secretary Duffy wants input on transportation infrastructure, particularly in reference to the upcoming transportation reauthorization legislation. I took the opportunity to provide this input:
1. Federal policy regarding Transportation Infrastructure should begin with defining Infrastructure. Infrastructure is a facility or associated equipment designed to last a minimum of 25 years, including periodic maintenance. Buses and other less durable equipment should be treated as an operating expense, not a capital infrastructure expense.
2. Infrastructure should be accessible to all - not just (and not always for) those who are able and can afford to drive. According to the Pew Research Center, 6% of American adults never drive and another 4% seldom drive (and probably shouldn't!). They (and their kids) instead cycle, walk, or ride. Roads need to support all three activities. While interstate highways are only for vehicles, separate rights of way for walking and cycling - usually along abandoned rail lines - have heavy use. In coordination with this priority, please continue supporting Safe Streets for All and similar programs.
3. The Reagan administration erred in focusing federal transit capital investments on buses and reducing support of operations. Instead, federal transit operations support should be restructured to: a) include bus purchases predicated on life-cycle costing to include fuel, maintenance, and mid-life rehabilitation; b) support multi-modal and multi-provider transit that enables inner-city residents to reach job opportunities on the periphery including beyond the transit system service area; c) Metropolitan Planning Organizations should identify potential transit routes and transit collaborations that will link residents to those outlying jobs; d) all transit rides require subsidies, without exception. Federal, state and local support is vital if expectations for safety, efficiency and effectiveness are met.
4) NHTSA should be charged with recommending vehicle designs and associated regulations that reduce crash fatalities. That includes lower front profiles for pickup trucks and SUVs, side undertow protections for trucks and tractor-trailers; and mandatory side camera systems to enable drivers of those vehicles to be aware of cyclists, pedestrians, and smaller vehicles especially on the curb side.
5) The National Transit Database administered by the Federal Transit Administration needs modification in several aspects: a) all 132 federal programs subsidizing rides should be required to annually report basic data including rides provided, the apportioned service vehicle miles and hours associated with those rides, the user fee and subsidy for those rides, the number of rides provided to wheelchair users and stretcher transport, and the proportion of rides that were shared with others, including those sponsored by other funding sources.
6. Funding for transportation infrastructure should be prioritized on a points system focused on safe people throughput and freight throughput, not vehicle throughput. Our tax dollars should be invested with safety, efficiency and effectiveness as priorities, not to bias the economics of investment for any particular transportation or energy industry or corporation.