REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION RODNEY E. SLATER
NINE BILLIONTH TRANSIT PASSENGER ANNOUNCEMENT
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
APRIL 17, 2000
I'm here in New York City at Grand Central Station as part of a two-week, multi-modal transportation tour across America that began last Friday in Laredo, Texas at the U.S.-Mexican border and will conclude on May 1, in Buffalo, New York, on the U.S.-Canadian border. Our purpose is to look at the future of transportation in the 21st century.
This tour reinforces the Clinton-Gore Administration's recognition of transportation as a strategic investment-along with education, health care, technology and the environment-that is essential to strengthening America for the fresh challenges and limitless opportunities of a new century and new millennium.
I cannot think of more appropriate venue than Grand Central Station, and a more timely occasion than during Earth Day 2000 celebrations, to announce that annual nationwide transit ridership has broken the nine billion mark.
New York is a leader in transit ridership. Nearly 1.7 billion New Yorkers ride transit every year. That’s about one in every four users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders.
With more Americans riding transit, we can reduce traffic congestion on our roadways and improve air quality in our communities. Transit is helping to build sustainable communities across the nation.
Thanks to federal investments; improvements in the transit commuter tax law; a continued concern for our environment; and a growing commitment to create safer, more livable communities, transit riders now number more than nine billion.
Today there are more people on buses, subways, commuter trains and trolleys than at any time in the history of transit. For this we can thank President John F. Kennedy who in 1962 called on Congress to establish a program of federal capital assistance for mass transit and transportation planning.
Forty years ago President Kennedy began the livability conversation when he said, "To conserve and enhance values in existing urban areas is essential. But at least as important are steps to promote economic efficiency and livability in areas of future development. Our national welfare therefore requires the provision of good urban transportation, with the properly balanced use of private vehicles and modern mass transport to help shape as well as serve urban growth."
Today public transit remains a central piece of the livability agenda. As communities spread further outward and commuting distances grow, roadways become increasing congested. According to recent estimates, nearly half of travel time is under peak congested periods, and Americans waste half a billion hours a year stuck in traffic. That is why President Clinton and Vice President Gore have made record level investments in public transit.
To help ease traffic congestion and combat air pollution, the Clinton-Gore Administration has worked to provide communities with a broader range of transportation choices. Since 1993, federal transit funding has risen more than 50 percent, to nearly $5.8 billion this year.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore are continuing that commitment by proposing, in their 2001 budget, $6.3 billion for transit-related projects.
I applaud the work of APTA, the New York Transit Authority, MTA and the hundreds of transit authorities across the nation for the excellent work they do every day to ensure that Americans have safe and efficient transit choices to connect them to work, to school, to health care, to an improved quality of life.
Transit is a critical factor in restoring a sense of community, in bringing people together, and in enhancing the human and natural environment.
I believe that by working together we can ensure that the places in which we live in today will remain the places in which we want our children and our grandchildren to live tomorrow.
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