REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

ARIZONA ASSOCIATED GENERAL CONTRACTORS RECEPTION
PHOENIX, AZ

FEBRUARY 19, 2008
4:00 PM

Thank you, Steve [Steve Padilla, AZ AGC Chairman], for that wonderful introduction. And congratulations on your recent election as Chairman. You’ve got an important task ahead, and I look forward to working with you.

We are at a critical time in our nation’s transportation history, and I am so pleased to speak with you this afternoon about the challenges ahead, and how my colleagues and I are working to fundamentally change our country’s approach to transportation infrastructure.

In 1956, Dwight Eisenhower had the dream and courage to propose and begin the construction of a national interstate highway system that would revolutionize the American economy and way of life. Ike believed that directly charging the people who used the interstate system was the fairest and most efficient approach, but he was limited by the technologies of his day.

So, we built the interstate system using indirect gas taxes, instead of tolls. While we succeeded at building the largest highway system in the world, the seeds of our current problems were planted.

In time, special interests began to infect the federal transportation program. Politics, not economics, started dictating how funds were invested and how the system was managed. Congestion exploded, billions of dollars were squandered, and public confidence collapsed.

The system Eisenhower created to build highways was transformed into one that doled out patronage.

The failings of the current system are clear. Over the last 25 years, traffic congestion has increased 300% while millions of dollars are wasted every year on bridges to nowhere. And sadly, communities across the country have come to tolerate clogged roads, wasteful spending, and ineffective financing approaches.

There is no greater symptom of our failure than the fact that Americans simply don’t support putting more money into the system. The public is acutely aware of what’s going on…after all, they experience the system’s shortcomings every day.

But now it’s time to put an end to poor performance and lowered expectations, and establish a new vision for the century ahead.

I am here to tell you that there is a better way, that we can do more than Eisenhower ever dreamed. $400 billion is available right now for road, bridge, and transit projects if we have the will to use it. Indeed, we could unleash tomorrow the greatest new wave of transportation investment this country has ever seen.

We can live in a time when projects are built that actually address the demands of consumers and the needs of shippers. We can live in a time when commuters and shippers set transportation priorities instead of central planners. And we can live in a time when commuters aren't afraid of their commutes, businesses aren't hamstrung by road delays, and shippers aren't sidelined by tie-ups.

We have the resources, the technology, and the know-how to launch a new transportation era in America today. We can build new, ambitious projects. We can better manage our existing freeways and freight corridors. We can significantly cut traffic. And we can do it right now. All we need is the political courage to embrace a new paradigm in transportation financing and construction.

That is because that $400 billion doesn’t come from new taxes, new bonds, or new debt. It is money that has already been raised. That money is what the private sector has available right now, for investment in transportation. And the key to embracing these resources is to go back to Ike’s original premise, and embrace the power of tolling.

Unlike in the 1950’s, when technology limited toll collection to expensive, unsightly, and inconvenient toll booths, we never need to build a new toll plaza again. Instead, we can quickly and easily install high-speed open road tolling equipment that will never require a single driver to slow down.

This simple technology will make it possible for the private sector to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in transportation, give commuters greater say over where projects are built, and help cut congestion.

Our country has not achieved success by shying away from open, honest debates about what works and what doesn’t. High speed, open road tolling works. It is easily implemented. It will immediately cut congestion. It will immediately improve the environment. It will immediately give people choices they don’t have today. And it will immediately ensure that transportation dollars stay and flow into places like Arizona.

Florida, Texas, and Virginia are already attracting billions in new transportation investment by embracing open road tolling. And not surprisingly, they are beginning to reverse the failure expectations that have come to plague our system.

I know tolling can be controversial, but so too are the alternatives—higher taxes, more congestion, more earmarks, more special interests, and more pollution.

Public private partnerships are at work right now, and creating new transportation realities across the country. Unleashing the investment locked in the private sector by partnering with business is the most efficient path to the transportation future this country needs and deserves.

Now ideas like open road tolling and public private partnerships aren’t just theories. They are real solutions being used by real leaders. In December, in Paris, I toured a privately financed toll tunnel project that runs 80 meters below the city in certain stretches. This is no ordinary tunnel. They used some of the most sophisticated highway engineering the world has ever seen in order to avoid impacting Versailles and to expand the capacity of the tunnel. The taxpayers bear NO cost. Now if the French can find a way to build a tunnel without raising taxes, I'm pretty sure we can, too.

Also, in December, we helped Virginia close an extremely creative transaction to widen one of the most congested highways in America using private financing and state of the art variable electronic tolls.

The message from investors is the same everywhere we go: “we want to invest in America, if only you would let us.”

We want to encourage, not discourage investment, and we want to inspire innovation, not stifle it. So in the coming months, this department will issue new proposals aimed at doing just that.

These proposals will change the way we look at congestion, the way we invest in transportation, and the way we get goods moving again through our economy.

The proposals will do that by saying NO to special interests. By saying NO to spending transportation dollars on museums and lighthouses. And by saying NO to earmarks.

The proposals will ask us whether we want to settle for incremental increases in spending and exponential decreases in results, or, are we ready to embrace new investments and design, fund, and build the system we deserve and need.

The answer is clear. America’s transportation system can be better, and I intend to do everything I can to make that happen.


As we foster this critical transition, I know the AGC will be a partner in transforming transportation in America. I know we will continue to work together to improve our nation’s roads, highways, and transit systems, and that we share the same goal: a transportation system that will keep this country moving, and keep us competitive.

Thank you. And with that, I’d be happy to answer any questions you have.