SENATOR BOB SMITH
RANKING MEMBER
COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
MARCH 19, 2002
Good afternoon, and welcome to our distinguished panel
of witnesses. Mr. Chairman and members,
today we have an opportunity to hear from some of America=s leading academicians and theorists in an area that
every one of us is vitally affected by: the strangling congestion of our roads
and highways. In addition to the latest
research on traffic flow, they are going to present us with some creative ideas
on how to alleviate this crises, some of which are very radical, and definitely
Aoutside the box@. I welcome the creativity and ingenuity they
represent, and commend our witnesses for presenting us with such original
thinking. I urge all my colleagues to carefully
consider the ideas presented to us today.
Everyone knows that traffic congestion is a nightmare
that plagues us all at some point in time, for some it is a way of life. New Hampshire is certainly no stranger to
this problem - just ask anyone who commutes on I-93 every day. In the nation=s 76 largest urban areas, the congestion Apenalty@ - the added delay caused by more and more cars
jamming our roadways - has skyrocketed 185% since 1982. Additionally, there is a financial cost to
traffic congestion and bad roads - in terms of both time and added
expense. According to 1998 research
conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute, traffic congestion costs
Americans $53 billion annually in fuel and time.
Yet we cannot overlook the mobility needs of growing
towns that are not among the most congested major metropolitan areas. It is just as important that smaller regions
like southern New Hampshire implement transportation improvements that will
prevent emerging traffic problems.
Traffic congestion is not only an inconvenience, it
can also be deadly. The American
Highway Users Alliance has recently estimated that fixing the nation=s 167 worst bottlenecks over the next 20 years could
prevent more than 287,000 crashes and save nearly 1,200 lives. To me, there is no better reason to improve
our roads and eliminate these bottlenecks.
As the senior Republican on this Committee, I will be
working very hard to do everything possible to craft a bi-partisan approach to
addressing these congestion issues in reauthorization. Peak-hour congestion can be eased if we are
willing to look outside of the box toward innovative solutions. I look forward to exploring the new ideas we
will be presented with today. Thank
you again to all of our witnesses for being here.