SierraScape August - September 2004
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by Eric Olson
The Bush administration's transit policies are missing the train, and American workers are paying the price. That's the conclusion of a new Sierra Club report, which details how local economic pressures feed a growing demand for rail and other public transit projects and how the administration's bias against transit is out of touch with America's communities and commuters.
The growing popularity of public transportation underscores an important realization that is taking hold in communities across the country: that public transit spurs revitalization and redevelopment and it fights smog and traffic. It does so without feeding sprawl the way haphazard roadbuilding does. Regardless of these facts, the Bush administration is trying to shortchange transit and favor highway building in our communities.
Public Transportation Progress Jeopardized
Among hundreds of public transportation projects that could be significantly stalled due to the Bush administration's transportation proposal, the report highlights a dozen public transportation projects. These include:
Florida - Tampa Bay Regional Rail System
Georgia - Atlanta-Athens Commuter Rail
Indiana - Northeast Indianapolis Corridor Rapid Transit
Louisiana - Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Charles Parishes light rail
Maryland - Bethesda to New Carrollton Purple Line
Michigan - Downtown Detroit to Metro Airport Rail Project
New Hampshire/Massachusetts - Lowell-Nashua Commuter Rail Extension
Ohio - Cincinnati Interstate 75 Corridor Light Rail
Oregon - Portland South Corridor Light Rail
Texas - Houston Light Rail Extension
Virginia - Williamsburg-Newport News-Hampton Light Rail
Wisconsin - Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Metra Extension
While dozens more projects would likely suffer under the Bush Administration proposal, the projects listed above are a representative sample. Delaying or preventing these from getting built would harm commutes, economic revitalization, better jobs and improving our environment.
Need for Greater Transit Investment
The Sierra Club report documents the benefits of transit and the costs of the Bush administration policies. The report argues that the United States deserves a balanced transportation plan that is sensible for both the environment and the economy.
In recent years, demand for public transportation has increased significantly, and new transit ridership has greatly exceeded projections. Since the last time Congress took up a major transportation funding bill in 1998, public transit ridership has increased 21 percent. New transit lines are greatly exceeding projected ridership in Houston, Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake City and elsewhere. New Starts, the federal program that helps promising transit projects get off the ground, has a record backlog of over 200 projects, reflecting the fact that more and more communities are embracing, and clamoring for, public transportation.
The report lays out the economic issues behind this growing support for public transit in America's communities, looking at employee stress levels, the challenges of low wage commuters, redevelopment linked to transit, and jobs directly in the transit sector.
The benefits of transit seem lost on the Bush administration, which proposed, as part of its six-year transportation plan, a radical change to the ratio for federal matching transit funds. Currently, the federal/state funding match for new transportation projects is 80:20, however, the Bush administration would like to dramatically increase the state share to 50 percent for all new transit projects. In doing so, this administration would put hundreds of transit projects across the country in jeopardy, and with them, the jobs and economic benefits those projects bring locally.
And it's not just the Sierra Club that is criticizing the Bush Administration over public transportation. Paul Weyrich, of the conservative Free Congress Foundation, in a recent commentary called the Bush Administration "THE most anti-rail administration in the history of federal involvement in mass transit" and notes "the Bush folks are not pro-transit."
We Can Do Better
We can enjoy easier commutes, more sensible development, jobs in better locations, and a better environment with a stronger commitment to public transportation. Unfortunately, the Bush administration has chosen to reward its friends in the road lobby rather than promote a balanced transportation policy. What's more, communities across the nation are eager for public transportation, but they will be waiting longer and paying more for transit under the Bush administration's plan.
Please see www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/report04 for a copy of Missing the Train.
To weigh in on these important public transportation issues with your Members of Congress, visit: whistler.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=280
Eric C. Olson works for the Sierra Club's national Challenge to Sprawl Campaign.