Foreword

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Examples Organized by Category

Examples Organized by Type

Examples Organized by State

Endnotes

The September 11 attacks on America instantly revealed the importance to our national security of a redundant, resilient, shock-resistant, and secure transportation system. While our transportation agencies and businesses struggled heroically to deal with the tragedy, some travelers did not make it home for a week. Confidence in the security of our transportation systems plummeted, with cascading economic consequences. Fortunately, we have some tools to deal with this crisis, provided by the visionary federal transportation laws known as ISTEA and TEA-21. In testimony before Congress a few weeks after the attacks, Jeffrey Warsh of New Jersey Transit outlined the ways his agency had adapted trains, buses, and ferries to meet the crisis, both on September 11th and in following weeks. He concluded, "If New Jersey Transit had not been able to use TEA- 21 to make the necessary investments in our vital transportation system, we would never have been able to play such a pivotal role in evacuating Manhattan." The national security benefits of ISTEA were hardly anticipated when the bill was passed ten years ago, but those benefits demonstrate the critical importance of this reform law. Ten years ago, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) declared that our transportation system "must be operated and maintained with insistent attention to the concepts of innovation, competition, energy efficiency, productivity, growth and accountability." The law introduced an astonishing array of new policy tools, as well as unprecedented local input and flexibility in transportation decision-making and spending. ISTEA opened the way to a new course for transportation, one where health, wealth and community quality of life are core objectives of our federal transportation program. We present here some examples of how transportation is achieving this goal. These success stories, many of which were driven by local leadership and initiative, underscore why empowering local decision-makers is so important in building a future where transportation investments better serve communities, promote choice, and provide alternatives to the nation's auto-dependence. And, as we've seen in the last few months, a transportation system that provides alternatives is more urgent now than ever before. To those responsible for enactment of ISTEA, and for its use in support of healthier, more equitable, more livable, and more secure communities, we dedicate this book.

David Burwell
President, Surface Transportation Policy Project
November 16, 2001

Over the past decade, American communities have sought -- and started to find -- new ways to meet changing transportation needs. Community leaders see that the current transportation system has contributed to problems ranging from noise pollution to urban disinvestment. But more importantly, they have begun to see and use new transportation investments as part of the solution.

This report first documents how transportation is changing in the United States. In just ten years, we have moved from an almost single-minded focus on finishing an extraordinary freeway and highway network to an exploration of myriad new ways to improve and expand transportation choices.

The first two chapters of this report document the national trends that have emerged in the past decade: increasing demand for more choices, increased investment in new solutions and changing traveler behavior.

The third chapter gives specific examples of how, in community after community, transportation investments are being used to make communities better places to live.

Americans are rethinking their transportation systems. For decades, from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, most Americans embraced the growing Interstate system and local highway networks that provided new, convenient links to the places they wanted and needed to go. By the 1960s, a growing airline industry provided fast and relatively inexpensive connections to distant locations. The freedom to move, to cross great expanses, has always been part of the American identity. During the years when it facilitated this American vision, most Americans saw the federal transportation program as an unqualified good.

By the 1980s, most of the Interstate system was in place, and the Interstate era came to a close with the construction of the last miles of the original system in the early 90s. A growing number of citizens and community leaders felt that the roads that continued to be built had started to generate more problems than they were solving, leaving other community objectives underserved. They began to demand other travel choices. And people began to see transportation not so much as an end in itself, but as a tool to create better communities and a better quality of life.

On December 18, 1991, President George Bush signed into law a visionary transportation bill that anticipated this historic shift. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) ended the focus on building Interstates and, for the first time, made it possible for communities to use federal dollars for a broader range of transportation investments. ISTEA's flexibility gave communities the mechanism and access to the resources to respond to the demand and need for more choices.

The states, regions, cities, and counties that have embraced the new opportunities provided by ISTEA and its successor, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), are taking many different paths, from building bikeways to providing working families with better access to jobs. What all of these innovations have in common is the use of transportation investments to provide more choices and improve community life.

The best measure of the new era are the projects themselves; dozens of examples of these changes are the core of this report, and appear in Chapter Three. But so many communities have moved in this direction that we can already measure the impacts on national spending and behavioral trends.

Funding Shifts
As the highway system began to age, spending on road repair grew from $5.8 billion in 1991 to $16 billion in 1999, growing from 39 percent of the federal transportation budget to 49 percent. Road conditions have begun to improve after years of decline. Federal funds spent on transit almost doubled, from just over $3 billion in 1990 to close to $6 billion in 1999. The amount of federal money spent on bicycle and pedestrian projects grew from just over $7 million at the beginning of the decade to more than $222 million by 1999.

At the same time, state and local money began to flow toward a wider variety of transportation uses. From 1990 to 1999, local and state funding of public transit grew by 34 percent, from about $5.8 billion in 1990 to $7.8 billion in 1999.

Transportation Choices Expand
The shift in transportation priorities and investments can been seen on the ground. In the last eight years, more than 300 miles of new urban and suburban rail have opened to the public, and another 244 miles are under construction.¹ Buses are running almost 200 million more miles of service across the country, an increase of 13 percent. More than 250 bus systems now extend their reach with bike racks mounted on more than 20,000 buses.² Driven by enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the number of trips taken on paratransit and other demand-response transit service, has grown by 71 percent since the beginning of the decade, with 68 million trips provided in 1999. No national figures exist on the growth of sidewalks, bikeways, or similar facilities, but the examples in this report indicate that growth is robust. Many of the examples also document the improvements in transit quality that are difficult to express through numbers alone.

Decision-Making Improves
These shifts in spending and construction are largely the outcome of a new, more democratic transportation planning process. During the Interstate era, federal engineers drew up the Interstate system plan with help from state highway departments. Under ISTEA, representative regional bodies known as Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) were given control of a portion of federal transportation funds, with increased opportunities for public involvement in planning and project selection. Across the country, more and more citizens are now working in concert with government officials in planning their transportation future. Over the decade, many local governments have transformed their public involvement processes from sparsely attended public meetings into dynamic community forums. In some cases citizens, planners, business leaders and others have all rolled up their sleeves in design workshops to plan a community and its transportation needs from the ground up.

Travel Habits Change
All of these changes are reflected in the national growth in public transit use and the leveling off in the growth in driving. For the first time since World War II, growth in Americans' use of buses and trains is consistently outpacing growth in driving. Government and industry figures released for the year 2000 show that in the five previous years, transit use grew by 21 percent while driving increased by just 11 percent, with growth in driving flat in the year 2000. This is the first time since the introduction of the automobile that transit use has grown faster than driving for more than three years in a row. Similar but shorter periods occurred during the recession years of the early 1980s, the 1974 oil crisis, and World War II.

Transit systems across the country are reporting overflow crowds. New light-rail lines are especially popular, filling up almost as fast as they can be built, and are consistently outpacing ridership projections. Ridership on the newly opened Southwest Corridor in Denver is 56 percent higher than projected. The initial St. Louis MetroLink, which opened in 1993, experienced ridership that was 83 percent higher than projected. And the North-South TRAX light rail system in Salt Lake City, opened in 1999, exceeded ridership projections by 43 percent. Existing systems are also exhibiting robust growth. The shift is also reflected in people-powered transportation. Areas with strong bicycle facilities report growing use; nationally, bicycle commuting grew by nearly 9 percent between 1990 and 2000.³

Innovation Thrives
ISTEA and TEA-21 encouraged local communities to use transportation investments to address community problems in innovative ways. The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) spurred innovative projects to improve air quality, significantly reducing harmful emissions. The Transportation Enhancements program has been a popular route for providing new bicycle facilities, preserving historic resources, and promoting more community-based transportation. The Job Access and Reverse Commute program has given some communities the resources to provide low-income workers better access to jobs while improving access to suburban employment centers. The Transportation and Community and System Preservation Pilot Project (TCSP) encourages communities to make new linkages between land use and transportation.

In addition, ISTEA and TEA-21 reorganized federal transportation spending to emphasize preservation of the roads and bridges constructed during the Interstate era, created spending flexibility while increasing fiscal accountability, and called on transportation officials to consider a wide variety of factors in planning transportation projects. It strengthened the connections between transportation and other federal laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. In short, federal transportation law has been innovative. Yet, despite this progress, there is still much to be done.

This tremendous record of change is offset by the reality that in most communities, transportation still means just one thing: driving. The expansion in travel choices has not touched millions of Americans living in areas where roads continue to be the only significant transportation investment. Metropolitan-area lane mileage has increased by 12 percent over the decade.⁴ So even as transit service has increased, the continued expansion of roadway capacity has swamped transit's gains, resulting in an overall decline in transportation choice in many metro areas. In 1999, almost $25 billion, or 74 percent, of federal transportation funds were spent on roads and bridges, and the decision on how to spend these funds remains largely in the hands of state Departments of Transportation, all too often with minimal citizen involvement.

Many states have not yet tapped the promise of ISTEA and TEA-21 to develop innovative transportation solutions and empower local decision-makers. While almost 50 billion federal dollars were available to the states over the decade for any transportation use, by decade's end only $3.3 billion of this funding went to transportation alternatives and most of this was spent in just five states. New York, California, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Virginia were responsible for 82 percent ($2.7 billion) of all "flexing" of federal funds to alternative transportation. Many states also put budget priority on traditional highway-building programs such as the National Highway System, leaving more innovative projects under-funded.

This emphasis has continued our reliance on one travel mode. Further road building, coupled with sprawling development patterns, have meant increased congestion for drivers, not to mention serious travel problems for non-drivers. As highways expanded into undeveloped areas, metropolitan areas grew exponentially, leading to a loss of open space and the decline of vibrant metropolitan centers. The amount the average American drives grew exponentially, with 69 percent of the increase fueled by factors associated with sprawling development. This increase in driving meant a steady growth in traffic congestion. Congestion grew in the 68 metro areas surveyed annually by the Texas Transportation Institute, even though on average, metropolitan areas added road capacity faster than they added population.⁵ This paradox is beginning to make it clear to many community leaders that they can not build their way out of congestion.

For non-drivers, the emphasis on roads and automobiles to the exclusion of all other choices has meant inconvenience, economic disadvantage, and even danger. The emphasis on traffic flow has squeezed pedestrians out, making walking 36 times more dangerous than driving.⁶

Problems created by an imbalanced transportation system include:

Damage to Americans' health. Sedentary lifestyles, partly attributable to car dependent development, are harming our health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared an obesity epidemic among adults and children, and says that creating bikeable and walkable communities are an important first step in combating it. A statistical analysis by STPP shows that more people are overweight in metro areas where people walk less.

Deterioration of air quality. Communities that continued heavy road investments, such as Atlanta and Houston, struggled - and sometimes failed - to curb increasing air pollution. Nationally, automobiles account for about 1/3 of the emissions that cause smog, and 41 percent of particulate pollution (soot).⁷ Air quality has a dramatic effect on children's health and access to opportunities. Asthma attacks triggered by poor air quality are the number one reason children visit the emergency room or miss school.

A heavy burden on low-income families. An analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer-spending data shows that a car-based transportation system is expensive for families, and this burden falls heaviest on households that are struggling to make ends meet. According to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, households in the lowest income bracket spend 39 percent of their income on transportation, most of it on vehicles.⁸

A barrier to home ownership. The necessity of buying automobiles drains family wallets and can make it harder for working families to afford a home. A recent analysis by STPP and the Center for Neighborhood Technology found that households in places with few travel choices can spend $1,200 to $6,000 more per year on transportation than comparable households in places with more opportunities to take transit, bike or walk.⁹

The pressure for new solutions
Americans are looking for transportation solutions that better fit their needs and lifestyles. Poll after poll shows that Americans have placed transportation problems among their top concerns, and want transportation investments that help make their communities better places to live. Both national and local polls show that expanding public transportation is extremely popular, and in many cases respondents have expressed a willingness to pay for more choices.

In national polls, between 60 and 80 percent of Americans favor expanding public transportation:

In polls across the country, solid majorities say public transportation expansion is very important:

The number and variety of citizen groups with a strong interest in transportation policies has expanded rapidly. At the beginning of the decade, just a handful of significant local transportation reform groups existed, and most were environmental organizations fighting highways. Today the movement is broad and deep. The number of independent organizations with an active stake in transportation decisions has grown to more than 800, and includes business associations, health care agencies, unions, community development groups and smart growth advocates, among many others.

While the pressure for new solutions is enormous, the capacity to respond is still limited. For example, the federal 'New Transit Starts' program, which funds the start-up of new rail and busway systems, is hugely oversubscribed. In 1998, TEA-21 authorized 191 projects. But it is abundantly clear that these funds will not meet demand; with more than 50 projects under development, and another 250 under study, demand for funds runs at 370 percent of the total funds available.

Not only major investments go wanting. In California, a new program created at the instigation of STPP and its local coalition partners to use federal safety funds to create safe routes for children to bike or walk to school has won instant popularity. Authorized at $20 million, the first round of funding spurred submission of $130 million in proposed sidewalk and crossing improvements and other small but significant safety projects.

The Urgent Need to Diversify the Transportation System
The terrorist attacks of September 11th brought both the limitations and the potential of the transportation system into sharp focus. The several day shutdown of the nation's aviation system produced an emotional, economic, and social shock that spread the direct impact of the terrorist attack to every community in the country. While highways provided some relief, the lack of a nationwide inter-city rail system meant thousands of travelers were simply stranded, and the economic impact of a decline in air travel is still being felt.

Within Washington, DC and New York, alternative transportation modes proved essential in helping cope with the crisis. Washington's Metrorail system helped evacuate thousands of workers quickly and easily while drivers sat in gridlock downtown. When the devastation in Manhattan snarled the roads, officials could restrict single-occupancy vehicle traffic with the knowledge that New Yorkers had a number of other easy travel options. When Exchange Place in New Jersey suddenly became home to 20 percent of World Trade Center tenants, ridership on the Hudson- Bergen Light Rail line doubled within days.¹⁶ Across the region, transportation officials had plenty of options as they sought to cope with all the sudden travel changes: they increased existing ferry service, train, and commuter service, added park-and-ride lots, and eased transfers between light rail and commuter train lines. A transportation system that gives people choices every day can double as an emergency preparedness strategy, providing options to help the community weather a crisis.

All across the country, communities have been building new kinds of transportation projects to serve residents and visitors. This report highlights 71 examples that convey both the diversity of approaches and the many ways these projects are improving their communities. The projects are divided into four categories according to a type of benefit they provide: Enhancing Health, Safety and Security; Conserving Energy and Enhancing the Environment; Creating Equitable and Livable Communities; or Promoting Economic Prosperity. All of these projects have taken place within the 1990s¹⁷, and most received federal funding or were inspired by the reforms of ISTEA and TEA-21.

Examples Organized by Category

Examples Organized by Type

Examples Organized by State