REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

INTERSTATE-15 MEDIA EVENT
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

AUGUST 18, 2008
2:00 PM

Thank you, John [Njord] for that kind introduction. John and I have been friends a long time and it is an honor to be with him here today. I’d also like to thank Speaker Curtis for being here today.

Good morning, everyone. It’s great to be in Salt Lake City today to talk about how to keep this exciting city moving forward.

The Bush Administration just released a comprehensive new plan to refocus, reform, and renew our very approach to the nation’s highways and transit systems.

For fast-growing cities like yours, this plan will deliver fewer traffic tie-ups, better transit services, a stronger economy, and a cleaner environment. It is a clean break with the past when it comes to transportation in this country.

Residents and commuters in Salt Lake understand that they can’t fight tomorrow’s traffic with yesterday’s transportation solutions. Indeed, a study released earlier this year by the Utah Foundation found transportation and traffic among the top ten issues driving voter decisions.

That probably explains why, in 2006, Utah took an aggressive step toward fighting congestion by embracing new high occupancy toll lanes on much of the I-15. Since then, you’ve nearly doubled the number of vehicles this interstate can and does carry every day.

Those ambitious efforts continue as you work to include hybrid / electric buses to your transit fleet and add high speed electronic sensors to the Express Lanes so you can vary how much drivers pay to use the lanes based on how many people are on the roads.

These variable tolls as they are called will allow even more cars to use I-15, make commutes even shorter, and help raise significant new revenue for other important projects including planned new hybrid bus routes throughout the city.

But the sad truth is that it takes too much time and too much red tape for states like Utah to get federal funding for innovative approaches like this. I for one believe that improving traffic in our busiest cities should be a priority and not a pain.

So our plan makes it easier to fund, review and complete projects designed to improve commutes, raise new revenue and make cities like Salt Lake even more attractive places to live and work.

After all, America’s 100 largest metropolitan areas are its key drivers of prosperity, generating three-quarters of U.S. gross domestic product. We can’t afford to have that economic engine stalled by gridlocked traffic.

So we re-focus on our urban areas by proposing a new Metropolitan Mobility Program. This program will provide an unprecedented federal funding allocation directly to municipalities, according to a funding formula that takes into account both highway and transit use as well as population.

Under our approach, Salt Lake and other cities will no longer have to slice and dice every federal dollar to qualify for niche programs that do little to improve their communities or their commutes.

Instead, under our plan, projects qualify for funding if they stand up to benefit-cost analysis. Projects that improve commutes, give taxpayers a good deal and cut congestion get funding. In other words, projects that make sense move forward.

That’s bad news for those looking to build bridges to nowhere or highways for no one, but it’s great news for people who want to find a faster and more reliable way to get from jobs in the city to shopping in the South Valley.

In fact, our proposal will not only put an end to earmarks, it will give states like Utah greater flexibility to invest the over 10 billion dollars worth of stale earmarks from previous years that are simply lying around unspent today.

If adding electronic toll sensors and adding new bus routes are as good as local sponsors say they are, they will be easier to fund under our proposal than under the current, broken federal system.

They will get done a lot faster, too, because our plan pilots changes to the federal review process so it will not take the 13 years on average to design and build new highway and transit projects it does today.

Trying something new is never easy. But this is a state that’s never been afraid to embrace something new. And if ever there was a time to rethink our approach to transportation in this country, that time is now.

We’ve laid out a plan intended to spur local, state and federal debate about how best to incorporate new reforms into the surface transportation legislation that Congress will begin work on this fall. Today, I welcome anyone who wants to see easier commuters and faster shipments in places like Salt Lake to that discussion.

Thank you. And I will be pleased to answer any questions.