Talking Points

The sample legislative options in this package will:

• Give more funds and greater control to local, regional, and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs);
• Encourage alternative transportation projects, like mass transit and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements;
• Reduce congestion;
• Help to improve air quality; and
• Make cities safer and easier in which to get around.

Local planning is smart planning.

• Local and metropolitan areas suffer from a variety of transportation-related problems, like deteriorating air quality, increasing congestion, and dilapidating roadways.
• States cannot always adequately address local and metropolitan transportation-related problems.
• Local control produces a more balanced and holistic transportation network because decision makers are aware of local needs and problems and experience them on a daily basis.
• Local planning organizations and MPOs are more than twice as likely to spend available funds on mass transit, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements, and other alternative transportation projects.(1)

Current approaches to transportation funding are outdated and out of touch with current public demands.

• The nation’s highway system was first created in the post-World War II era.
• The majority of states have adopted little or no reform to the transportation funding provisions created during that period.
• Transportation problems have evolved dramatically since the birth of the highway system, and states need to update existing laws to reflect changes resulting from continued growth and address the challenges that face local and metropolitan areas.
• For the first time since World War II, transit ridership has outpaced the growth in driving for 5 straight years and is at its highest level since 1960.(2)
• Despite the shift in public demand, local and metropolitan planning organizations directly receive less than 6 percent of available federal funds.