Budget in Brief Table of Contents | DOT.gov

U.S. Department of Transportation
Fiscal Year 2009 Budget In Brief

Overview

Reduced Congestion

The Department’s budget request includes $36.7 billion in FY 2009 to reduce the growing transportation congestion and declining system reliability that Americans contend with every day. Mobility is essential to America’s economic prosperity and quality of life. In today’s global economy, it is more important than ever to have seamless transitions among the modes of transportation so that people and cargo can move effectively and efficiently.

On August 10, 2005, the President signed into law SAFETEA-LU which represents the largest surface transportation investment in our Nation’s history. SAFETEA-LU continues a strong, fundamental emphasis on core formula programs, coupled with targeted investment, featuring Safety, Equity, Innovative Finance, Congestion Relief, Mobility & Productivity, Environmental Stewardship, and Environmental Streamlining.

The search for new and innovative solutions to our congestion challenges is strongly supported in the FY 2009 budget request, with overall investments in research, development, and technology proposed at $1.2 billion.

Surface Congestion

• Improve Highway Infrastructure Condition and Relieve Congestion. OMB’s FY 2007 PART review for the Federal-aid Highway infrastructure program concluded that this program adequately supports States in maintaining the good condition of highway infrastructure and ensuring that there is sufficient capacity and access to transportation to move people and goods. DOT’s goal is to work with States and local transportation officials to reverse the growth in total annual urban-area road travel that occurs in congested conditions, with the goal in FY 2009 to reduce congested travel to 31.9 percent in 2009, or by 0.4 percent below 2008 target levels.
  
  Consistent with SAFETEA-LU, the FY 2009 budget request of $22.4 billion for FHWA mobility programs continues to relieve traffic congestion and improve highway infrastructure conditions. The vast majority of these funds will be distributed to States to assist their efforts to improve highway performance. Funds will also enable FHWA to work with metropolitan areas to pursue several broad strategies that are aimed at reducing traffic congestion. Building on the success of last year’s urban congestion efforts, additional partnerships will be established with selected cities pursuing innovative congestion pricing applications along with new operations, management strategies, and advanced technology deployment. A robust program of research, development, and technology transfer will support:
  • Development of new road pricing strategies, including high occupancy toll lanes;
  • Adoption of comprehensive traffic bottleneck reduction programs in every State DOT;
  • Improved freeway and arterial systems management through better timing of traffic signals;
  • Improved management of non-recurring events such as traffic incidents and work zones;
  • Enhanced decision-making through the use of more robust traffic analysis tools;
  • Integration of system management and operations considerations into the transportation planning process;
  • Establishment of regional partnerships involving key agencies; and,
  • Demonstrations of the effectiveness of variable parking pricing.
  FHWA will continue developing the next generation of system operations capabilities that improve the collection and dissemination of real-time information to enable State and local transportation agencies to better quantify system performance and place better information in the hands of transportation decision-makers. Funds will also be used to improve the performance of the existing transportation system and increase physical capacity. The capacity and performance of the physical infrastructure can be increased in specific locations or corridors by building new facilities, adding lanes to existing facilities, or removing bottlenecks.
  
  FHWA will also encourage States and metropolitan areas to provide system users with access to 511 telephone traveler information services, and thus increase to 85 percent the portion of the U.S. population with access. Because traffic incidents account for roughly one-quarter of congestion, FHWA and its partner agencies will increase the deployment of full-service (i.e., incident-oriented) patrols, as well as adopt more effective quick-clearance policies and laws in the top 40 U.S. metropolitan areas.
  
  The requested funds will also be used to improve pavement conditions on the National Highway System (NHS) and thus increase to 57 percent in FY 2009 the share of travel on the NHS that meets pavement performance standards for a “good”-rated ride. The NHS is comprised of the most important national routes for trade and commerce, including all Interstates and over 68 percent of other principal arterials. While the NHS accounts for only 4.1 percent of total road mileage in the United States, it handles 44.3 percent of total vehicle-miles traveled. Improving the condition of highways and bridges is critical to reducing congestion and increasing transportation mobility - key indicators of system performance. Consequently, the condition of the NHS significantly impacts congestion, wear-and-tear on vehicles, and fuel consumption.
  
  Funds will be used to reduce the percent of deck area on NHS bridges that are rated deficient, either as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The target in FY 2009 is to reduce the percentage to 20.9 percent.
• Restructure Intercity Passenger Rail Service. The Administration’s goal of reforming Amtrak and fundamentally changing the manner by which intercity passenger rail services are provided in the United States is being pursued on multiple fronts, and is beginning to show progress. The Administration’s efforts have resulted in a Board of Directors committed to ambitious reform improvements; a new management team with a mandate to re-shape the company; and legislatively-directed tools that enable DOT to oversee and promote necessary changes. The Administration is proposing a budget of $900 million for intercity passenger rail for FY 2009. This funding level supports intercity passenger rail at a level that will encourage Amtrak to undertake meaningful reforms and control spending. As part of this $900 million investment in intercity passenger rail, the budget proposes $100 million to continue funding the State grant program, which encourages investment in rail infrastructure.
• Increase Transit Ridership, Invest in Transit Systems, and Improve Access to Transportation Services. The FY 2005, FY 2006, and FY 2008 PART reviews for the capital investment (New Starts), urban formula transit grants, and State administered transit grants programs affirm that these programs are well managed. FTA requires all New Starts projects to conduct a rigorous “Before and After Study” to document the impact of the project on ridership and other performance indicators. In communities that have completed New Starts projects, significant regional transit ridership growth has been demonstrated after the beginning of revenue operations.
  
  The Department of Transportation is requesting more than $9.6 billion in FY 2009 for FTA to: increase by at least 1.9 percent the average yearly number of transit boardings per transit market; increase the number of jobs made accessible by Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) transportation services; increase the proportion of bus fleets that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to 98 percent; and increase to 94 percent the proportion of key rail stations that are ADA-compliant. Transit formula programs are essential to maintaining and upgrading the condition and performance of the Nation’s transit infrastructure so that America’s transit systems continue to move tens of millions of people safely and efficiently every day, thereby reducing congestion, facilitating economic development, and connecting people to their jobs and communities.
• Increase the reliability of oil and natural gas pipelines. By promoting continuous improvement in pipeline safety, PHMSA promotes the reliable delivery of energy products and maximizes the capacity of the Nation’s pipeline network. This network delivers most of the oil and natural gas needed to sustain the U.S. economy, including more than 90 percent of the fuels that power other transportation modes. In FY 2009, $1.4 million is requested for PHMSA to support efforts in reducing the percent of pipeline capacity lost due to accidents, incidents, or safety-related reductions in operating pressure.

Aviation Congestion

The aviation industry is responsible for moving people and products, and it contributes approximately $640 billion to our economy. Over two million people a day travel on our Nation’s airlines and more than one-third of the value of all goods is moved by air. Air travel exceeded pre-9/11 levels in FY 2007, and is on track to reach more than one billion passengers by 2015. By FY 2011, air carrier, commuter, and air taxi operations are anticipated to increase approximately 10.7 percent from FY 2006. By FY 2014, without any changes to the system, we expect to see delays 62 percent higher than they are today. We must take steps now to improve the efficiency of our Nation’s air traffic control system and our airports.

The multi-agency Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) is charged with developing a vision for the air transportation system’s long-term transformation. FAA’s challenge is to realize JPDO’s vision for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Ready to embrace the hard work necessary for transformation, FAA has expanded its existing capacity-enhancement plan, formally known as the Operational Evolution Plan (OEP), to become the chief operational implementation plan for its NextGen responsibilities. The expanded OEP – now the Operational Evolution Partnership – details the path to the NextGen system, integrating a myriad of FAA planning activities into one comprehensive, high-level blueprint.

• Improve Access to Transportation Service. To allow Americans living in small communities to have reasonable access to air travel, the Department of Transportation’s FY 2009 budget request assumes $50 million of overflight fees collected by the Federal Aviation Administration will fund the Essential Air Service (EAS) program, which provides payments to air carriers serving small community airports. The budget request includes program reforms that seek to ensure the most isolated small communities maintain access to the national air transportation system.
• Meet New and Growing Demands for Air Transportation Services. To achieve an on-time arrival rate of 88.22 percent of flights in FY 2009 and to increase average daily capacity at major airports, the Department requests $3.7 billion, primarily for FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) and Safety/Operations Capital Accounts and Airport Improvement Program grants. This includes funding to replace obsolete radars and to continue automating terminal control facilities and $21 million for oceanic automation to improve flight route flexibility. Programs that will form the core of NextGen are also funded, including $41 million to develop an internet-like System-Wide Information Management network and $300 million to continue implementing Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast technology throughout the National Airspace System. $14 million is included in FY 2009 Research, Engineering and Development (RE&D) funding to support the JPDO. The FY 2009 Airport Improvement Program request includes $1.3 billion aimed at reducing congestion, largely through the building and maintaining of runways.
  
  In addition, the Department proposes to budget $21 million to provide for the assessment, development, acquisition, implementation, operation, and sustainment of additional civil capabilities to the Global Positioning System beyond the second and third civil signals already contained in the current Global Positioning System. These capabilities provide continuous, world-wide civil space-based positioning, navigation and timing services free of direct user fees for civil, commercial, scientific and homeland security uses.

DOT’s Reduced Congestion Performance Budget is distributed as follows: