... support for roads & bridges from campaign speeches. ..

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Meeting Highway Users Needs

• For the
• American Dream Coalition

By Greg Cohen, PresidentAmerican Highway Users
Alliance April 18, 2009
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American Support for Federal Infrastructure
Investment

• 94 of Americans are concerned about the
  condition of our nations infrastructure
• Roads and bridges rank 2 in top things the
  public supports
• 84 support spending more
• 81 are willing to pay 1 more in taxes for it
• Strong majorities among both Dems Repubs.

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Government Accountability is the Voters Single
Highest Priority

• 61 of Americans concerned about accountability
• How can Congress address this concern?
• CLEAR NATIONAL PRIORITIES
• REFORMING THE OUTDATED TEA PROGRAMS
• FINANCIAL INCENTIVES FOR RESULTS
• INCREASING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR FAILURES

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REAL NATIONAL PRIORITIES 2009 Authorization Bill

• CONGESTION RELIEF
• Creation of a 3 billion core congestion relief
  program for the National Highway System.
• States that achieve benchmarks on NHS routes
  receive bonus funds and greater program
  flexibility
• ECONOMIC GROWTH / FREIGHT
• New Freight Fund firewalled from the Highway
  Trust Fund
• Truck-specific user fees would be spent on
  highway freight capacity, operations, and
  traveler information systems.

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REAL NATIONAL PRIORITIES 2009 Authorization Bill

• Safety
• Save 200,000 lives over the next 20 years by
  cutting annual fatalities in half
• Spend 10 of FHWA funds on safety
• Provide safety programs with a separate
  obligation limit
• Every state must meet its proportional share of
  lives saved over a four-year period or face
  higher obligation requirements.
• Tax incentives for purchasing commercial vehicle
  safety equipment

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REAL NATIONAL PRIORITIES 2009 Authorization Bill

• Aging National Hwy System Roads
• Pavement Management System
• Bridge Management System
• Currently 25 of bridges obsolete or stucturally
  deficient
• Our target for 2020
• lt 2 deficient
• lt 5 obsolete

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REAL NATIONAL PRIORITIES 2009 Authorization Bill

• ENVIRONMENTAL STREAMLINING STEWARDSHIP
• Congestion relief projects should be recognized
  for their air quality benefits
• Firmer, shorter deadlines for interagency project
  reviews
• DOT accountability for timely advancement of
  projects coordinated with other agencies
• Expand streamlining pilot programs
• FUNDING THE AILING HIGHWAY TRUST FUND
• Increase transparency, accountability
• Reduce waste diversion of both traditional
  highway user fees and new revenue sources
• Protect revenue generated by taxes, tolls,
  congestion pricing, and all user fees spend
  these only on critical highway needs

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Signs of TroubleRoads were about 3.5 of the
stimulus bills cost

• Many people believe roads were a major piece of
  the stimulus. They werent!
• If stimulus doesnt work, people may believe that
  much-ballyhooed road investments were not
  successful in growing the economy
• If public support for highway then falters, it
  could doom the use of highway investments as
  economic solutions.

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FY2010 Budget

• Obama-Administration Budget Framework
• Eliminates contract authority, an 87-year old
  budgetary treatment for hwy programs that helps
  fund multi-year projects
• No mention of the Presidents supposed support
  for roads bridges from campaign speeches.
• Little room for growth in highway funding
• High speed rail boondongle sucking all the oxygen
  downpayment of 13B just the beginning

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Longer-term issues

• Obama team focused exclusively on high speed
  rail and livable communities (Smart growth).
  This focus could turn the highway bill into the
  anti-highway bill.
• Many in Congress are unaware of the long-term
  solvency problems and think the trust fund was
  fixed with the 8 billion in restored user fees
  in September 08
• A number of challenges (time, money, staff
  burden, policy changes, competing interests)
  likely to doom 2009 authorization bill.

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Obamas High-Speed Rail

• 13 billion down payment is just the nose under
  the tent
• No cost-estimates for completion
• No alternatives analysis i.e. buses
• No examination of subsidy per pass.mile
• Displacement of freight rail much worse
  environmental policy than addition of train
  passengers

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Potential disasters for mobility

• Clean Air Act Endangerment Finding for Greenhouse
  Gases
• How onerous will the Clean Air Act be to control
  GHG emissions?
• Will highway funds be withheld if states want to
  build roads?
• Who will have more leverage DOT or EPA?
• Cap-And-Trade legislation
• Waxman In Boxer remains leading Senate force --
  What does that mean for
• Mandatory VMT-reduction proposals? (chart next)
• EPA exercising new duplicative authority over
  State and Metro Plans?
• Opportunities for hwy projects to compete with
  transit for cap-and-trade funding?
• Streamlining project reviews over? More planning
  requirements?
• Will the new DOT support current efforts to
  streamline reviews?
• Will the Bush Executive Order on streamlining
  priority projects be kept in place?

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Correlation of VMT to GDP

• 0.9942 R-squared correlation since 1950
• Weakest correlation is during recessions but it
  is still over 0.96

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Other Moving Parts

• Funding and Financing Issues
• Highway Users Fee Increases Leadership needed.
  Support depends on avoiding new diversions.
• Competing bonding proposals vs. traditional user
  pay-as-you-go user fees.
• Is transition to debt-financing the sign of the
  times?
• National Capital Infrastructure Bank
• Obama-endorsed plan for large project financing
  funding source unclear. More debt certain.
• Public-Private Partnerships and Tolling and
  Pricing
• Use of revenue diversion?
• Benefits or harm to motorists?
• Impact on interstate commerce?

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Key Facts

• In 25 years, weve added only 4 new road miles
  while driving has increased 100. Were NOT
  investing in congestion relief.
• Outdated, inadequate roads lead to more than
  13,000 lost lives each year.
• 1/2 of our roads are not in good condition
• 35 of major urban roads are congested

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More Key Facts

• Freight to Double by 2035
• Trade will account for 35 of GDP by 2020 (up
  from 13 in 1990)
• Congestion reduction reduces wasted fuel and
  carbon emissions by 77 at major bottlenecks
• Congestion reduction could be achieved in
  medium-sized urban areas through changes in
  planning priorities. But 24 out of 26 areas
  planning to make congestion worse!
• See upcoming join AHUA Reason Foundation
  study by Dr. Hartgen - UNC

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The Looming Crisis
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This Conference Is Critical

• Grassroots organization is critical for political
  will to improve and reformed transportation
  programs.
• Transit advocates and bicyclists are better
  organized, more passionate and much better
  funded than mobility advocates
• Right now, it looks like Congress will either
  fail to act or create something horrific and
  yet the fiscal crisis may force people to swallow
  really bad policies

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Targets Politicians Media

• Rural Democrats who will not benefit from shifts
  from highways to transit bikes
• Senators in States that lose funding under a
  higher transit to highway split
• Those frustrated with highway project delays
  caused by NIMBYs
• Sunbelt growth States.
• Swing states

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Thank you! You can make a
difference!Success requires YOUR personal
involvement and actions from YOU, YOUR FRIENDS,
YOUR EMPLOYEES, YOUR RELATIVESFor more
informationgregcohen_at_highways.orgwww.highways.o
rg