The Traffic Congestion Relief Act . . .

• Will relieve traffic congestion in our state.
• Promotes the improvement of existing highways by repair projects, modernization, and planning.
• Reduces environmental damage by limiting sprawl and emphasizing cleaner vehicles and alternative fuels.
• Improves air quality by reducing vehicle miles traveled.
• Creates a State Transportation Trust Fund Authority, and Advisory Board to oversee these decisions.

• According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, over two-thirds of the growth in driving includes the same people driving farther, as well as a decrease in carpooling and a switch from biking, walking, or mass transit.
• In the last decade, cities that added the most road space experienced about the same increase in rush-hour congestion as those that added the least road capacity. 
• Travel delay is actually higher in cities that built the most roads. In the long run, it encourages additional development nearby, which leads to even more traffic.

• Encourage the state to “fix it first” and upgrade existing highways before building new ones.
• Improve public transit, movement, and highway systems throughout the state.
• Strike a balance between transportation needs and environmental protection.
• Reduce congestion, discourage sprawl, and assist in the redevelopment of cities and towns.
• Bring public highway, bridge, rail, ferry (if applicable), bicycle, and pedestrian infrastructure into a state of good repair.
• Maximize public safety and health.
• Provide stable and adequate funding for long-term transportation planning. 

• Ends the misguided cycle of bad road building which does not reduce congestion.
• Curbs the inefficiency resulting from bad planning.
• Protects the public and wildlife from major health threats caused by highways.
• Reduces the loss of critical wilderness to development.
• Decreases the dependence of the state economy on foreign oil.

• Every day, over one million vertebrates are killed in highway vehicle collisions.
• Roadkill is the greatest human cause of wildlife death throughout the U.S.
• The actual construction of a road, from clearing to paving, results in the death of trees and any other vegetation, as well as any organisms living in that vegetation.
• Once built, a road acts a barrier for migrating wildlife. 
• Species that will not or cannot cross roadways are isolated from valuable feeding, wintering or birthing habitat. 

• Transportation is by far the largest consumer of petroleum products in the country, accounting for two-thirds of our overall oil consumption. 
• Transportation consumes more oil than we import each year, and if current trends continue our dependence will only increase.
• The average American citizen uses three times as much energy for transportation as the average citizen of Western Europe and five times as much as the average citizen of Japan. 

• As transportation costs and maintenance bills increase, so do prices and taxes. 
• In many cities, families pay more for transportation than on housing.  In Houston, TX, transportation expenditures average $8,840, or 22.1 percent of expenditures.
• The poorest fifth (1/5) of American families currently spends nearly 40 percent of their disposable income on transportation.  Nearly all of this money goes towards automobile ownership and operation.