Jobs, infrastructure, Congress on the menu at TRB Chairman's Luncheon

Today I addressed the Chairman's Luncheon at the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting. I had two items uppermost on my mind: jobs and infrastructure.

As I've said before, modernizing our nation’s transportation infrastructure has been a top domestic priority of President Obama’s from the day he took office nearly a year ago. And by working toward that, we’ve already saved or created tens of thousands of jobs for American workers hard-hit by the recession.

And Congress is now considering another round of economic recovery funding. The House passed a new jobs bill at the end of the 2009 session. We’re hoping the Senate will soon take up its own version.

Yes, the economy is starting to recover, but the jobless rate is still too high. Many Americans are just scraping by, and that’s unacceptable.

President Obama is committed to improving the fortunes of America’s families, and the best way to do that is with jobs.

Look, we know that robust investments in highways, transit, aviation, and rail result in good paying jobs and in projects that benefit us all. And at DOT we received many, many more applications for our Recovery Act programs than we could possibly fund. So we think the final bill should feature more infrastructure investments.

It's the right direction at the right time, and it’s what American taxpayers are asking for.

The many jobs created, the many miles of road, rail, and runway repaired or widened--all of this is just the first leg of our marathon effort to make transportation an economic engine of recovery and a gateway to a better quality of life for all Americans.

I hope Congress sees the 2010 jobs bill as an opportunity to unlock many more good, ready-to-go transportation projects.

Comments

[Mike Siffer]

The "jobs" bill that is need is not shovel ready band aid resurfacing projects that Stimulus II would provide. What is needed is a new Transportation bill to replace the bill that expired in September. If you want to sprinkle a little shovel ready stuff in that bill fine.

[Rob]

Importantly, please keep in mind that analaysis of the first round of ARRA funding found that transit investments yielded twice as many jobs per dollar invested in highways. http://www.cnt.org/news/2010/01/05/new-report-reveals-missed-opportunity-to-create-jobs/

[Michael Henderek]

Thank you Mr. Secretary for your leadership to broaden awareness to the dangers of distracted driving. Too many Americans and far too many young Americans have died or been injured by this 'epidemic': the use of cell phones and texting. We need laws across the USA to promote safe and responsible behavior when driving. Your continued leadership is essential. Please don't stop.

[Michael E. Bailey]

We badly need the ARRA to be extended. This would be great. Funding for ACCESS paratransit is also an important issue in the disability community along with the fixed route buses. In cases where the transit agency operates both the paratransit system and the toll roads for a county or city, The Transit Board of Directors should get the Paratransit contractor and the toll roads contractor together and get an agreement that allows paratransit system vehicles to use the toll roads. This would improve travel time, reduce fuel cost, and help reduce pollution. ARRA grants could help provide some of the techical solutions to make such an agreement work. Another area where ARRA could help is in equipping all paratransit vehicles with GPS technology. Without GPS, it is easy sometimes for the drivers to get lost and passengers to be left stranded or waiting up to 3 hours for another bus. With GPS, those things are eliminated. Another issue has just popped up here. I went to the Area Board 11 Board of Directors meeting Tuesday night and one of the board members who needs an electric wheelchair in order to get around told the board that our transit authority has hired a new contractor to evaluate wheelchair users for paratransit. The new contractor has a scales and weighs the person in their wheelchair. If the total weight of both is 600 pounds, the person is cut off from paratransit and the rest of the transportation system including transit district fixed route buses, Greyound, Amtrack, Metrolink, and etc. Since many powered wheelchairs will weigh enough with the person in them to get to 600 pounds, that means the most disabled who don't have strength for a push chair lose transit access. ARRA funding could help with research on the transit wheelchair lift side and on the power wheelchair side to come up with something that will allow people who need to have powered chairs to be able to keep their transportation. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Tim Brown]

You hit the nail right on the head when you mentioned that you have multiple Tiger Applications ready to go and ready to put people to work. The downside is you do not have the money. While the jobs bill will pay for some, let's go to Congress and ask to put these projects to work NOW. All the evaluations are done, and most if not all are ready to go..Let's get it Done! We will save alot of time as the process has already been started.