America's Highways

What is Cooperative Environmentalism? It's a new approach to expediting the environmental review process for highway projects without compromising environmental values. As the name suggests, Cooperative Environmentalism provides the framework for all parties to work together to protect the environment while improving highway mobility and safety. Click here for more on this landmark study. To order a printed copy of this 26-page report, click here.

American Highway Users Alliance

The united voice of the transportation community on highway safety and mobility.

A nonprofit advocacy organization representing nearly 350 national trade associations, corporations, small businesses, and state and local nonprofit organizations that represent over 45 million highway users.

1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20036
202.857.1200       fax 202.857.1220
www.highways.org
© Copyright 2002

Highway Users Chairman Mike Toohey, Director, Government Relations, Ashland Inc., told the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee that the nation needs a well-funded federal highway program to improve safety, reduce congestion, enhance air quality and keep American jobs and enterprises competitive in a global economy.

Testifying at the Subcommittee's May 21st hearing on Congestion, Toohey said that we had allowed our mobility portfolio to become unbalanced. We have not been investing in new roads or enhancing the capacity of existing roads to match our growth in population or road use. Currently, we put 83 percent of highway funding into maintenance and only 4 percent into new roads and 13 percent into additional capacity on our existing network. This is at a time when the number of licensed drivers have risen by 63 percent and miles traveled by 132 percent. With total road mileage growing by only 6 percent and lane mile capacity by only 15 percent highway increasing congestion is inevitable.

The most important consequences of congestion are on our quality of life, according to Toohey. Citing the 1999 Highway Users Unclogging America's Arteries: Prescriptions for Healthier Highways study, he noted that if we improved traffic flow at just our 167 worst bottlenecks we would have 287,000 fewer crashes, 141,000 fewer injuries and save 1,150 lives over the next twenty years. We would reduce carbon monoxide emissions by 45 percent and volatile organic compound emissions by 44 percent at these sites, as well as have carbon dioxide emissions fall by 71 percent at these choke points. In addition we would save some $28 billion in fuel. With polls showing time management as one of Americans' top priorities, these bottlenecks are stealing 19 minutes per trip and 38 minutes per day from commuters. In other words, each week congestion robs families of the time equal to attending a child's soccer game, or going to a movie, or just spending a quiet afternoon or evening together.

Toohey also highlighted that freight movement is also expanding and is driven by the nation's economic growth. The number of class 8 trucks is expected to increase by over 35 percent over the next ten years and the number of Class 3, 4, and 5 trucks will double.

During the coming reauthorization of TEA21, Toohey urged the Subcommittee to consider four specific recommendations:

1. "The Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CM/AQ) program within TEA21 should be amended to include highway construction projects that will reduce congestion and increase transportation efficiency. CM/AQ has had a 57 percent obligation rate over the past four years. Washington should not be sitting on money while Americans are sitting in traffic."

2. "The Subcommittee needs to focus on the facts about the transportation system and respond to the real demand for transportation services. We have failed to build the roads we need to meet either our population or economic needs. As the Texas Transportation Institute has pointed out, those communities that added road capacity at or close to their rate of growth experienced a lower level of congestion than those who did not. Creating a better balance between maintenance and new roads and enhancing the capacity of the existing highway network is needed to reduce current congestion and prevent ever growing gridlock."

3. "The Subcommittee needs to protect highway funding and ensure that a reliable and predictable source of federal funding is available for this capital intensive program. We specifically urge you to support efforts to shift ethanol tax receipts into the Highway Trust Fund, compensate the Trust Fund for revenues lost to the gasohol subsidy and stem fuel tax evasion."

4. "The Highway Users applauds the recent actions of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in reporting out legislation to streamline the environmental review process for aviation projects. We urge you to take similar action for highways projects. Naming the U.S. Department of Transportation as the lead agency for conducting the reviews, establishing clear deadlines for the inputs from other departments and agencies, and establishing a format for state and local participation all have the potential to help reduce the current 10- to 12-year review timeline to a more reasonable pace."

In closing, Toohey said that The Highway Users support a balance approach to solving our nation's congestion problems. Better land use planning and cost effective transit options will be part of our mobility future. But America's love affair with transportation freedom will continue and the next highway bill needs to reflect that fact if we are going to make progress on reducing and eliminating congestion.

For full text of the Mr. Toohey's statement, click here.