Wisconsin speaks; I listen; DOT delivers

Supporting good jobs, modern infrastructure, and sound economic development is just as important to rural areas as it is to urban areas. Yesterday, as part of President Obama's Rural Tour, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and I traveled to La Crosse, Wisconsin, not just to deliver that message, but to hear from local residents.

This Administration understands how important it is for folks living in rural parts of America to have safe, reliable, and efficient access to jobs, schools, hospitals, and commercial centers. And we know that rural and urban areas have somewhat different needs, constraints, and practices.

So, as we revitalize transportation around the country, we know that mobility in rural communities will look different from mobility in urban centers. And that's why we went to West Salem--to listen to the folks attending the La Crosse Interstate Fair share their ideas on the challenges they face.

Here's some of what I heard:

• It's getting harder financially to depend on a truck or car for all of a family's transportation needs.
• Rural residents need transit just like city-dwellers do.
• Access to commercial air service is increasingly difficult for rural areas.
• Shippers of grain and other products need better freight options to get rurally produced goods to markets.

Those are challenges the DOT is addressing right now. But, I also heard how pleased local officials are:

• With the more than $375 million for 135 projects they are getting for highway dollars alone;
• With the $15.7 million for airport improvement projects not just in urban Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee, but also in rural Rhinelander;
• With the $3.2 million for Amtrak upgrades in La Crosse and elsewhere;
• With the $34 million in funding provided by the Recovery Act for small transit projects in Wisconsin; and
• That the $23 million they've saved from lower than expected bids can be used to support more projects, to create more jobs.

And, thanks to what I heard today in Wisconsin, we can better tailor future projects to deliver even more value and even greater mobility to America's rural communities.

Comments

[Andrew]

The challenge for mass transit in rural areas in the Northern States is in providing something that comes regularly not just a couple times a day, providing transit that isn't expensive and providing transit that isn't affected by snow, sleet and ice (or not affected much).

I favor a station to station system, automated to prevent accidents when the driver is sleepy (or drunk). Such automation might simply involve a tracking system so the bus doesn't drive off the road (on a rail or rails that wouldn't happen either) and a sensor that stops the bus so it doesn't hit another vehicle.

Then find a way so that the cost doesn't increase with the price of gas.

I suspect that different areas will have to come up with different solutions. The solution should use the locally available infrastructure and each solution should involve much discussion so that everyone can air their grievances with the system before its in place.

[Limo hire]

I am glad that a government is deciding to listen to its people.

[Roy -Arcade]

Good job! Keep up the good work.

[Wm E. Osborne]

Wonderful to learn of USDA & USDOT respected Administrators expanding their understanding of the Challenges in helping rural residents access society's goods, services, training and employment opportunities.

Now is the perfect time for helping more people see the benefits of transit & ride share matching. In a single Missouri county, the results of only 4% increase in ride sharing would equal 40+ new jobs, prevent 50,000+ tons of vehicle emissions and help people build long term wealth for their families.

[Dawn Piper]

Wonderful news! We appreciate that you are focusing on rural transit.

At Western Illinois University's Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs - Rural Transit Assistance Center/ICCT Clearinghouse we see the huge need for transportation options in rural areas all over the state. Under a partnership with the Illinois Department of Transportation support, we are working with counties to develop coordinated public transit systems. By this time next year, we will have helped position 25 or so rural counties to obtain public transportation funding.

In case anyone is interested - the ICCT Transportation Coordination Primer Process we have developed is based on Rides MTD, Illinois’ three time national transportation coordination award-winning rural system.

The Primer can be found on the right side of the page at the following website:

http://icctclearinghouse.blogspot.com/

I'm definitely interested in hearing more about what other states are doing in rural areas as well.

[N. Melchizedek]

I work on transportation issues in northern California. The points made in this post are definitely valid; I would also add that some funding sources for transportation services, including competitive grants, use 'number served' as a determinant for funding. Otherwise - more bang for the buck. In rural areas that kind of criteria doesn't work. The folks who live in the most isolated areas need access to medical appointments and services, jobs, groceries... transportation security is the first step in food and health security for many residents.

[Tome]

CELL PHONE SUMMIT:
Would it be possible and feasible to require cell phone companies to implement a required feature that would automatically disable (rendering service/signal unavailable) during *noticable* movement?

Obviously cell phones and cell towers already communicate, but would it be possible to piggy back the signal and if a change in cell towers is detected within a certain time span, this would mean the cell phone user is moving (thus driving etc) and if so, have the cell phone temporarily disable until a less frequent change in cell tower is occuring.

If this is possible, you could set the movement based on some 20mph (or whatever is deemed reasonable) and users would not be able to use cell phones during such movement, and obviously this would reduce usage during driving.

Better yet you could also have the cell phones only disable certain functionality (texting, etc) but allow cell phone usage during movement if over speed AND a hands free device is attached/detected.

This functionality should be possible with current technologies.