Castle wants federal funds to relieve traffic congestion (The News Journal)
Bill would add travel lanes, toll incentives
Washington
| October 6, 2009 -
More federal money and attention should go toward easing traffic congestion at the nation's major chokepoints, including along I-95 in Delaware, the state's congressman said Monday.
Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., used a summit of regional transportation leaders in Wilmington to draw attention to his proposal for the National Highway Chokepoint Congestion Relief Act. The bill got stalled after he introduced it last year, but Castle said he expects to reintroduce it today.
The bill could lead to more federal money for additional travel lanes, incentives to attract commuters to toll roads and other efforts to relieve congestion, he said.
"Congestion in the Northeast is a major economic and environmental issue, affecting everything from fuel consumption to business productivity," Castle said in a statement after the summit.
AAA Mid-Atlantic supports the bill, spokeswoman Cathy Rossi said.
"Highway congestion costs our country billions of dollars in lost time and lost fuel," Rossi said. "It's personal to people. When they see themselves wasting gas and wasting time, it can be frustrating and lead to road rage."
Congestion cost the average traveler $757 in 2007 in wasted time and fuel, according to an annual study released in July by the Texas Transportation Institute, a research center at Texas A&M University.
Congestion declined in 2007, the second year in a row, because high gas prices and the early days of the recession changed how Americans commute, the institute found. Drivers spent an average 36.1 hours in rush-hour traffic in 2007, compared with 36.6 hours in 2006 and a peak of 37.4 hours in 2005.
Castle's bill would:
- Establish a separate federal program to pay for congestion-reducing projects.
- Require the federal Department of Transportation to designate "national chokepoint regions" and devise a formula to direct money for projects in those areas.
- Require a study of "congestion pricing," which gives commuters the option to pay to drive on a less-congested road.
Castle said the federal Highway Trust Fund, which provides states with $40 billion annually for road projects, faces shortfalls this year because of the recession and wasteful spending on earmarks.
Rossi said Congress should increase the tax on motor fuel to help replenish the Highway Trust Fund, and Castle's bill would help make sure the additional money is used for congestion-reducing projects.
Congress last increased the gasoline tax in 1993, to 18.4 cents per gallon. It has not been adjusted for inflation, Rossi said, so today it is worth about 5.9 cents less than it was 16 years ago.
On top of that, people are driving more fuel-efficient cars, she said. While good for the environment and motorists' wallets, that means people are paying less for the wear and tear they put on the roads, Rossi said.
"People don't like the idea of paying more in taxes," she said. "But we're kidding ourselves if we think there's a quick and easy fix."
Castle was honorary host of a summit of the Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility at the AAA Mid-Atlantic headquarters in Wilmington.
Much of the discussion covered development of high-speed rail service through Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C., said Petra Todorovich, director of America 2050, a coalition of transportation, planning and academic groups, who participated in the summit. High-speed rail, as well as commuter rail, would help alleviate congestion problems throughout the corridor, she said.
The corridor isn't designated as a high-speed corridor, so it doesn't qualify for certain federal funding. Castle has asked the Obama administration to change the corridor's status and support a statutory change to make sure it is eligible for funding.
The summit also focused on how the region can get the most from the surface transportation bill that Congress will begin drafting soon.
The summit included representatives from the Delaware Department of Transportation, SEPTA, Amtrak, AAA Mid-Atlantic, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the I-95 Corridor Coalition, a group of transportation-related agencies from Maine to Florida.
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