Fact Pack

Addressing Today’s Transportation Challenges

• As the nation’s highway system was first being constructed, a focus on highway construction and state control of funds made sense because local, metropolitan, and regional systems were still evolving. Today, regional and metropolitan areas increasingly face a variety of transportation-related problems, including congestion, diminishing air quality, and a disintegrating highway infrastructure, all of which hinder their ability to continue to be competitive in the evolving global economy. Transportation problems have evolved dramatically since the birth of the highway system and states need to update existing laws to reflect changes and growth, and address the problems that plague local and metropolitan areas. By updating transportation funding mechanisms through trust fund reform, suballocation of funds, and adopting mass transit initiatives, state governments can help to alleviate transportation-related problems by supplying local and regional planning organizations with sufficient funds.
• With the interstate highway system completed, state departments of transportation have the opportunity to direct transportation funding to non-highway uses in order to decrease reliance on the automobile and dependency on foreign oil, reduce traffic congestion, and improve air quality and safety (especially for pedestrians).
• Today, only about six cents of every federal highway dollar, coming primarily through gas and vehicle taxes, makes its way to local decision makers, even though they own about 75 percent of the road and bridge infrastructure in the nation.(1)

Transportation Funding and Project Selection Favors the Automobile

• Only a small percentage of roads are served by public transportation; although there are 8.2 million lanes miles of roads throughout the United States, a mere 4 percent are served by mass transit.(2)
• Roads are built for speed, with very little concern for bicycles and pedestrians. Pedestrians and bikers daring to brave the streets do so at their own risk. In the U.S., pedestrian deaths account for 12 percent of traffic fatalities. Despite the dangers posed to pedestrians, very little has been done to address the issue; less than one percent of federal transportation dollars are spent making roads safe.(3)

People Want Transportation Choices

• Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl, a report from Smart Growth American and the Surface Transportation Policy Project, says that more people would like to be able to walk and bike. “[R]ecent national polls found that 55 percent of Americans would like to walk more instead of driving, and 52 percent would like to bicycle more.”(2)
• People are also showing more interest in public transportation. Between 2000 and 2001, transit ridership grew by two percent, while driving grew by one percent.(2)
• Metropolitan areas have the density to support a diversified transportation infrastructure, and are most likely to suffer from the problems related to increased automobile use, such as air pollution and traffic congestion.

Driving Costs Everyone Time and Money

• Sprawling development patterns have forced people to drive farther and more often to reach work, shopping, and recreation facilities. Between 1992 and 2000, data from the Federal Highway Administration found that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) increased by 24.3 percent.(4) As a result, people are spending more time in their cars then ever before. It now takes the average person 25.5 minutes to travel to work; a 14.1 percent increase from 1990.(5)
• Urban areas are especially hard hit. According to the 2004 Annual Urban Mobility Report, which looked at traffic flow in 85 urban areas, the average annual delay per traveler has increased from 16 hours in 1982, to 46 hours in 2002. The same report estimated that in 2002, congestion cost approximately $63.2 billion in time spent and fuel wasted sitting in traffic.(6)
• Transportation expenditures make up a significant part of household budgets. The average American household spends 20 cents of every dollar on transportation, the majority of which goes toward operating and maintaining personal vehicles. Low-income families are even more impacted. The average low-income household spends about 40 percent of their budget on transportation.(7) Many of these households cannot afford to own a car and rely entirely on the decaying public transportation infrastructure.
• Metropolitan areas are economic centers of our national economy, producing more than 85 percent of the nations economic output; and, 84 percent of America’s jobs.(8) Efficient transportation systems are an important factor for their continued prosperity.

  For more information on traffic congestion and how to reduce it in your state, see SERC’s “Traffic Congestion Relief” Policy Issues Package.

Transportation Choices Can Improve the Quality of Life

• Vehicles emit harmful chemicals that pollute the air we breathe. Transportation (including trucks and buses), account for more than 50 percent of carbon monoxide, about 34 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions, more than 29 percent of hydrocarbon emissions, and at least 10 percent of fine particulate emissions.(9) Air pollution aggravates chronic respiratory disorders such as asthma, meaning more missed days of work and school, and more trips to the emergency room. In 2001, it was estimated that nearly 20.3 million Americans had asthma. In 2000, emergency visits due to asthma were close to 2 million. About 14.5 million workdays and 14 million school days are missed each year because of asthma. All this adds up to around $14 billion a year in direct (health care) and indirect (work days missed) costs.(10)(11) According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) more than 130 million Americans (almost half the population) live in areas that violate federal air quality standards.(9)
• Public transportation conserves resources and is better for the environment. The American Public Transportation Association points out that for every passenger mile traveled, public transportation uses about half the fuel that cars, SUVs, and light trucks use. Public transportation also reduces air pollution, by producing only 5 percent as much carbon monoxide, less than 8 percent of the volatile organic compounds, and nearly half as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides, for every passenger mile traveled in a private vehicle.(12)
• According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. Nearly 59 million adults are considered obese and 9 million children and adolescents, ages 6-19, are overweight.(13) The CDC emphasizes that, in addition to good nutrition, regular physical activity is necessary to combat the obesity epidemic, but our current transportation infrastructure does not promote walking or biking.

Infrastructure to Support Cars Harms the Environment

• Roads, parking lots, and other paved surfaces are unable to soak up water. Instead, water builds up, resulting in flooding, or runs off carrying oil and other pollutants into our waterways. An “In Depth” Clean Water & Oceans report by Natural Resources Defense Council states: “When impervious cover (roads, highways, parking lots, and rooftops) reaches between 10 and 20 percent of the area of a watershed, ecological stress becomes clearly apparent.”(14) In addition to polluting our water, paved surfaces actually decrease our supply of water by preventing groundwater recharge. A recent study looking at the effects of the built environment on the nation’s water supply found that the Atlanta metropolitan region lost between 56.9 and 132.8 billion gallons of water in 1997. This is roughly enough water to supply the average daily household needs of 1.5 to 3.6 million people a year.(15)
• Building roads destroys open space and threatens biodiversity by cutting through wildlife habitat. A 2003 Defenders of Wildlife publication notes: “The Natural Resources Inventory estimates that in the United States, 2.2 million acres are now being converted to development each year. Roads have an ecological impact on an estimated 20 percent of the U.S. landscape. Of the 6,700 species in the U.S. considered at risk of extinction, 85 percent suffer primarily from habitat loss.”(16)

Decision Making Should Be Made by Regional and Metropolitan Planning Organizations

• Transportation challenges in urban areas often are regional in scope and cannot be adequately addressed by local governments acting independently. States often do not incorporate feedback from local communities about transportation problems.
• Most Americans live and work in metropolitan areas. Eight out of 10 Americans live in 300 federally designated metropolitan areas under the jurisdiction of regional planning organizations. These organizations potentially have the best understanding and opportunity to be responsive to the regional needs of metropolitan residents.(17)
• While the majority of the nation’s transportation infrastructure lies within metropolitan boundaries, neither local government or regional planning agencies have sufficient funding or authority to develop or follow through on comprehensive transportation reform.

  For information on how to promote smart growth and avoid sprawl in your state, read SERC’s “Surburban Sprawl” Policy Issues Package.

MPOs Spend More on Public Transit

• According to a study by The Brookings Institution (2003): “Since ISTEA in 1991, MPO’s have been twice as likely to spend their suballocated funds on public transit projects as have state DOT’s from funds with the same eligibility… In the same time frame, MPO’s were 78 percent more likely than state DOTs to spend federal funds on pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.”
• California spent considerably more of their state transportation funds on transit. “For the period from FY1998-FY2002, MPO’s spent 9.3 percent of all devolved STP funds on transit projects, as compared to 2.5 percent of state controlled STP funds within metropolitan areas.”(8)
• By allocating 75 percent of all transportation dollars to local planning organizations, California has seen significant innovation and creativity in addressing transportation challenges.(1)