The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE HIGHWAY BILL” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S865-S867 on Feb. 24, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE HIGHWAY BILL
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, other Senators and I have spoken numerous times over the past several weeks about the significant problems that will arise in States across the country if the Senate further delays action on the highway bill. Each day we delay adds to the burden of commuters sitting in traffic that is often moving at a crawl or brought to a complete stop because many of our highways are simply overcrowded. Each day we delay brings us closer to the May 1 deadline--just 39 session days away from today. That includes today--39 days. The time bomb is ticking. Senate session days remaining before May 1 deadline: 39. That includes May 1 as it includes today.
Since 1969, the number of trips per person taken over our roadways increased by more than 72 percent and the number of miles traveled increased by more than 65 percent.
The combination of traffic growth and deteriorating road conditions has led to an unprecedented level of congestion, not just in our urban centers but in our suburbs and rural areas as well. Congestion is literally choking our roadways as our constituents seek to travel to work, travel to the shopping center, to the child care center, and to the churches. According to the Department of Transportation, more travelers, in more areas, during more hours are facing high levels of congestion and delay than at any time in our history. And these congested conditions make us more susceptible to massive traffic jams as the result of even the most minor of accidents. The DOT tells us that, during peak travel hours, almost 70 percent or the urban interstates and just under 60 percent of other freeways and expressways are either moderately or extremely congested. That is lost man hours, reduced productivity, wasted fuel, and wasted time.
The worsening congestion is taking a horrible toll on our economic prosperity. I direct the attention of my colleagues to a study conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. According to the Institute's study, the annual cost of highway congestion in our nation's 50 most congested cities has grown from $26.6 billion in 1982 to almost $53 billion in 1994. In other words, it has doubled. Delay accounted for 85 percent of this cost, while fuel consumption accounted for 15 percent. While more recent data are still being collected, the Institute's researchers state that, in the last four years, the cost of congestion in these cities has only continued to grow. This multi-billion dollar hemorrhage is found not only in our largest cities where eight of the top ten cities had total annual congestion costs exceeding $1 billion; we find congestion taxing severely the economies of several small- and medium-sized cities as well. According to the Institute, the economy of Albuquerque, New Mexico endures an estimated annual cost of congestion approaching $150 million per year; Memphis, Tennessee-- almost $150 million per year; Nashville, Tennessee--almost $200 million per year; Norfolk, Virginia-- more than $350 million per year; Columbus, Ohio-- more than a quarter of a billion dollars per year; Jacksonville, Florida--more than $350 million per year; and San Bernadino-Riverside, California--over $1 billion per year.
There are a lot of explanations for traffic congestion's growing impact on our cities, but a principal cause of congestion, clearly, is the fact that road mileage has not kept pace with a growing population, a growing work force, and an American lifestyle in which the personal mobility afforded by automobiles is as essential to daily life as are eating and sleeping. Many people say that Americans have a love affair with their cars. More than a love affair, however, Americans simply depend on their cars to squeeze their myriad chores and activities into a busy work day.
A vehicle is one tool that many American workers cannot do without. They do not just drive to and from work anymore. Americans stop at the day care, the grocery store, the dry cleaners, the PTA meeting, the gymnasium, and at volunteer programs, all in the course of driving to and from work. Transportation researchers call this phenomenon ``trip-
chaining,'' and it is a trend that continues to grow and shows no sign of slowing.
While the size of our highway network has remained relatively static for years, the condition and performance of those roads has deteriorated. Poor road and bridge conditions must share part of the blame for our nation's congestion problem. According to a 1995 U.S. Department of Transportation's report to Congress, 28 percent of the most heavily traveled U.S. roads are in poor or mediocre condition. That means that those roads need work now--work now--to remain open and protect the safety of the traveling public. And more than 181,000 bridges, or 32 percent of our nations' 575,000 bridges, are in need of repair or replacement, including 70,000 bridges built in the 1960's and designed to last 30 years under 1960's travel conditions. These roads and bridges that have outlived their useful life or that are falling apart from under-investment often are traffic choke-points that can be corrected with the proper repairs.
And Senators don't have to travel very far away to see the traffic choke-points, as they attempt to cross the bridges, get on the bridges and cross the Potomac every morning and every evening. It took me an hour and 15 minutes to get from my home in McLean, 10 miles away, this morning, to get to my office because of traffic congestion feeding into the streets, and feeding on and feeding off the bridges. We have to get across that Potomac. As I say to my colleagues, we don't have to travel far to see these choke-points working against us, against the traveling public.
If Senators would like examples of a choke points, they need look no further than the bridges that cross the Potomac River. Most of these bridges were not designed to carry the traffic that accompanies the morning and evening rush hours. As a result, traffic jams back up for miles every work day, in both directions. That is the gridlock that poor roads and bridges can cause. I am sure that if Senators contact their own state transportation departments, they will find numerous examples of traffic choke-points in their own states where a new bridge, smoother pavements, where an additional lane would alleviate the problem and get people and freight moving again.
And congestion means more than just economic costs. Obviously, congestion costs Americans time that could otherwise be spent with the family, with those children who are coming in from school and times that otherwise could be spent at work, time that could be otherwise spent in school or elsewhere. According to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute, commuters in the country's 50 largest urban areas lose an average of 34 hours each year idling in traffic. Now that is not only time wasted, it is not only gasoline wasted, it is pollution in the air.
Another, and equally important, cost of congestion is, as I say, its impact on air quality. As cars and trucks are slowed by traffic congestion, they emit more pollutants, thereby impeding efforts in many parts of the country to come into compliance with federal air quality standards. Road improvements aimed at smoothing the flow of traffic can reduce auto-related pollutant emissions substantially. All such improvements, however, cost money. And the Senate should be doing everything possible to ensure that our state and metropolitan officials do not run out of federal highway funds that can help them relieve congestion and improve air quality.
Today, Mr. President, Americans rely on automobiles for 90 percent or more of all trips. In many areas of the country, we need additional highway capacity to accommodate that travel. And federal highway funds are often a critical source of capital for these projects.
What can we do about congestion, Mr. President? What can Congress do to help eliminate the $53 billion annual burden borne by commuters in our large cities? What can we do to give people more time at home with their families or on the job instead of stuck in traffic? What can Congress do to our cities and counties to help their air quality?
Probably the single most important action Congress can take to help alleviate these problems is the prompt enactment of the 6-year highway bill. That bill is on the Senate calendar, ready to go, and the country cannot afford to wait any longer. The May 1 deadline after which States will have no more Federal money--the Governors are in town and I hope that some of them are watching the Senate at this moment--the May 1 deadline after which States will be unable to obligate any more money, and if there is any doubt as to whether or not the States may obligate any more money after midnight, May 1, take a look at what the law says, public law 105-130, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 1997, which is the short-term highway authorization that Congress passed last November before adjourning Sine die.
Here is what it says. This is the law. ``. . . a State shall not''--
it doesn't say it may not--``. . . a State shall not obligate any funds for any Federal-aid highway program project after May 1, 1998 . . . .''
There it is. That is the law. Unless a new law is passed that will be the law on midnight, May 1, all the highway departments throughout the country, the Governors and mayors and other officials and the employees of the various highway agencies throughout the country, will feel the pinch. So the May 1 deadline, after which States cannot obligate new Federal money to finance congestion relief projects, as I say and I repeat it, is just 39 session days away--including today and including May 1. It is drawing nearer with every passing minute.
Mr. President, we cannot afford to delay. Our constituents stuck in traffic jams need our help. They want their highway taxes used to get them out of gridlock, but we cannot do that while the Senate is stuck in legislative gridlock. I urge the majority leader to get the Senate--and the country--out of gridlock by calling up the highway bill now.
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