Riding That TIGER Grant

Kansas City, New Orleans, and Seattle are just a few places that received some good news from the US Department of Transportation today. Each will receive a grant to build innovative transportation projects as part of the $1.5 billion TIGER program (Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery) that was included in the Recovery Act (ARRA) last year.

Altogether, 51 projects in 41 states and the District of Columbia received grants under TIGER ranging from just $3 million to over $100 million. The resulting projects will change how residents that live in each these areas use transportation, making their communities more livable, sustainable, enjoyable, and prosperous. Here are just a few:

> Las Vegas Sahara Avenue Bus Rapid Transit

Bus-only lanes, off-board fare collection, and intelligent transportation technology will improve reliability and speed of rapid bus service, benefits both auto and transit passengers

> Indianapolis Bicycle and Pedestrian Network

A public/private funded 8-mile urban bike/pedestrian network in the heart of downtown Indianapolis, connecting commercial and business districts with civic and public spaces

> Crescent Corridor Intermodal Freight Rail Project

Intermodal stations along this major freight corridor project, combining water, rail, and highway, will add significant new freight capacity from the Southeast to the Mid-Atlantic

> Kansas City Transit Corridors & Green Impact Zone Project

Major transit corridors investments the Green Impact Zone, which seeks to jump-start economic recovery in a distressed area by enhancing transit and pedestrian access to regional economic opportunities

TIGER shows that there are hundreds of innovative transportation investment opportunities across the country that can put Americans to work and improve local economies while cutting oil use and global warming pollution at the same time. However, a few more nuanced points jump out as well.

Job Creation and Economic Recovery

First, these projects will create jobs. Like other transportation investments in ARRA, infrastructure projects put people to work immediately in planning, engineering, and construction. Cleaner projects such as public transportation, intermodal, and rail investments tend to generate more jobs per dollar than highway projects. They also have a positive economic impact up the supply chain by driving demand for components and materials.

Balanced Transportation Investments

Second, the mix of projects on the list is a divergence from the formula funding of traditional transportation programs. Current law sends about 80 cents of every transportation dollar to roads and highways, and less than 20 cents to transit. Bike and pedestrian projects get about a penny. (Ports and passenger/freight rail aren’t funded much at all in the federal transportation program.)

The TIGER project funds break out to approximately:

• Highway - 23%
• Rail - 19%
• Transit - 26%
• Port - 7%
• Multimodal – 25%

This balanced approach to transportation investment more closely represents what Americans want. A recent poll by Transportation for America and the National Association of REALTORS found that Americans think government transportation investments neglect public transit and rail, which they also prefer to accommodate growth, ease congestion, and enhance communities. A previous poll (page 18) by Transportation for America found that given $100, Americans would spend $41 on public transit, $37 on roads, and $22 on bike paths and sidewalks.

National Objectives Reduce Wasteful Projects

Third, the projects submitted were oriented to support national priorities, which included economic recovery, transportation mobility/access, energy security, environmental sustainability, and community livability. The decision-making process that evaluated each proposal was transparent and well documented, and I am sure that the paper trail will be analyzed in coming weeks. But a clear, transparent project evaluation process aligned with progress toward national objectives can help to weed out pork-barrel projects and bridges to nowhere that serve no one but parochial interests.

The Necessity of Transportation Reform

Finally, what is most striking is most of that these projects are unlikely to ever have been funded through our current federal transportation program. While this legislation was most recently reauthorized in 2005, its last major rewrite of was in 1991 – nearly two decades ago. While our transportation challenges have changed with the times, the program has not. As a result, this 20-year-old policy fails to encourage the innovation we see in TIGER projects, and often penalizes efficiency and discourages new ideas these projects entail.

The list of successful TIGER applications clearly shows the need to reform outmoded transportation laws. Such high-quality transportation projects should be the rule, rather than the exception. National transportation policy threatens our future when the most innovative, efficient, and solution-oriented transportation investments can’t receive funding. TIGER helps address the failures of the current transportation program, but it is only a stop-gap.

An Opportunity the Public Can Believe In

The whole program must be rethought and overhauled to be similarly balanced, innovative, performance-driven, and outcome-oriented. TIGER demonstrates how this is a national opportunity. Passing a reformed federal transportation bill would create jobs, now and for years to come. It would facilitate commerce and economic growth. It would cut oil use, saving families money and enhancing our energy independence. It would reduce air, water, and global warming pollution.

It’s true that new revenue would be needed to make the required investments - $1.5 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed. But with such a great return, perhaps taxpayers would be willing to make the investment if the transportation program included clear project criteria that were aligned with national priorities, clear processes that were based on performance, and clear outcomes that measurable improved our nation. That is to say, if it looked more like TIGER.

Related entries: In October, I posted about how the TIGER applications demonstrated a demand for something differend than the current transportation program.