Will TIGER reform federal transportation funding?

Advocates praise USDOT

Steve Hawley, Feb 25, 10.

The federal TIGER transportation grant program has won praise from many transportation experts who say that future federal policies should mimic its success. The $1.5 billion TIGER grants, whose winners were announced last week, were part of the 2009 stimulus act.

Nationwide, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) received 1,380 applications totaling $56.5 billion. The agency evaluated the applications on a new set of criteria: long-term improvements to repair, economic competitiveness, livability, sustainability, and safety; short-term job creation; innovation; and multi-agency partnerships. These criteria generally favored transit and rail projects over highways and new roads.

In his FastLane blog, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wrote, “Folks, this is not just another grant program; this is a new way of recognizing merit, a way that breaks through old formulas and rewards American innovation that serves American communities.”

As a result, according to Wired.com, road projects - which comprised 57 percent of the total applications - got just 23 percent of the money. Rail received 19 percent of the money and 26 percent went to transit, with another 25 percent going to intermodal transportation. The article notes:

The list of TIGER grant recipients (.pdf) represents a real change from the traditional transportation policy that favors the almighty automobile above all else. Oh sure, there are a lot of bridges and roads in the $1.5 billion Transportation Reinvestment Generating Economic Recovery spending plan, but they didn’t get a whole lot of money.

The Brookings Institution says that while other transportation stimulus programs short-changed metropolitan areas, the TIGER program focused its money and efforts on the nation’s urban areas. It notes that the 100 largest metro areas contain 67 percent of the nation’s population and produce 75 percent of the gross domestic product, but they got just 59 percent of transit stimulus money.

The TIGER program, by comparison, awarded 77 percent of its money to the 100 largest metro areas. Brookings notes that this includes cities like Louisville, Providence, and Tulsa, not just places like Chicago and New York City. The article concludes, “As Washington considers the additional steps needs to retain and create jobs, the TIGER’s recognition of the economic primacy of U.S. metropolitan area should be illustrative.”

The Transport Politic states:

[T]he Department of Transportation is moving in a positive direction: only 23% of investment went to highway projects, compared to 26% for transit and much more for intermodal and freight rail. It also has invested big bucks in pedestrian improvement programs. Indeed, TIGER says a lot about how this DOT works when it’s not under the direct control of Congress: it is prioritizing spending that is not car-centric.

However, it also says that the impact of the TIGER grants, which were mostly awarded in relatively small amounts to maximize distribution, may be too spread out.

At the National Journal, 13 experts shared their opinions, which were overwhelmingly positive. Parris N. Glendening, the former governor of Maryland and current president of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, wrote, “[The TIGER grants] show that DOT understands that transportation is not just about moving people and goods. These projects help make places stronger, cleaner, safer and more prosperous.” Mortimer L. Downer, a senior advisor at Parsons Brinckerhoff, said that the main lesson to be drawn from the TIGER grant program “is that transportation needs and opportunities are not identical place to place and mode to mode.”

Only three of the experts said the TIGER program was not a worthy model of transportation investment. Two of them criticized the subsidization of rail and transit projects - even though highways receive far more subsidies - and one said that the TIGER grant program took far too long to implement, noting that it created no jobs in 2009.

Transportation for America, Smart Growth America, and the National Resources Defense Council all released statements supporting the TIGER recipients and saying that the TIGER program should be used to reform the existing federal transportation funding system.

(Photo credit: cacophony)