Mayors want transpo money to come to cities

Mayor Parker agrees

David Crossley, May 06, 11.

Because the federal government has failed to invest in transportation infrastructure in metropolitan areas—home to two-thirds of the country’s population, 86 percent of United States employment, and 90 percent of wage income—families spend too much time stuck in traffic and businesses cannot efficiently move their products to market, according to a new Metropolitan Transportation Infrastructure Survey from the US Conference of Mayors.

The Mayors called for more federal money to come directly to metropolitan regions and for less money to go to states to do “low-priority expansion projects.”

Houston Mayor Annise Parker told Houston Tomorrow “It is an unnecessary step for federal funding to go through states when it is meant for cities. I wholly support doing away with that extra level of bureaucracy to increase efficiency, which will allow everyday citizens to see more quickly the benefits and results of federal funding.”

At a National Press Club press conference, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said “Mayors are on the front lines of building livable and sustainable communities. We are where hope meets the street.”

From the Survey:

The largest metropolitan areas account for 87 percent of the nation’s traffic. The three most congested areas—Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago—account for 27 percent of that traffic. Our metropolitan areas rank high among world economies (e.g., New York’s economy ranks 12th and is larger than India’s economy), but they are saddled with bus and rail systems at capacity and aging roads and bridges that will undermine their ability to meet the nation’s future economic output. Simply put, these areas are receiving significantly less in federal transportation investments than would reflect their role and importance to the nation’s economy.

Given these factors, metropolitan areas should be at the center of federal transportation infrastructure investment. They are the drivers of the 21st-century United States economy.

This survey confirms what mayors have been saying for years: through a new direct partnership with mayors, the federal government should make tomorrow’s transportation infrastructure more metropolitan-focused, more energy-efficient, and more environmentally sustainable.

As the federal government sets priorities for long-term spending and deficit reduction, future transportation infrastructure investments should prioritize spending on pressing metropolitan transportation infrastructure needs as opposed to low-priority expansion projects such as the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. The long-term productivity of transportation infrastructure spending is greater when it is invested where economic growth will occur, and over the next 20 years, 94 percent of United States economic growth will occur in metropolitan areas. Absent these reforms, 93 percent of mayors surveyed in this study said they would not support an increase to the federal gas tax to fund 20th-century transportation infrastructure improvements.

An example of the problem in the Houston region is the State’s decision to spend $6 billion to build a 186-mile new loop highway around the region that would only touch one of the region’s 134 towns and cities: TTC allocates $350 million for State Highway 99

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Smart Growth America report
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US Mayors want more local control of transportation spending, focusing more on transit and livability spending and less federally mandated sprawl subsidies, according to a survey conducted by the US Conference of Mayors and reported by DC Streetsblog.

Video of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on MSNBC’s the Daily Rundown:

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