A Q&A with Transportation Secretary Mary Peters
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee already has begun to lay the groundwork for the 2009 reauthorization of the nation’s highway, highway safety and public transportation programs. The committee has begun to evaluate the conditions and performance of our federal highways and public transportation systems and to examine the long-term adequacy of the existing funding mechanisms for highway and transit programs.
Last year, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and the creation of the Highway Trust Fund.
Today, our nation faces staggering transportation challenges.
We must provide travelers with real choices when it comes to travel for business or to visit family, aside from paying high prices at the gas pump, sitting in traffic or waiting in long airport lines.
Recent testimony provided to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee reported that Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed train is remarkably safe and highly profitable. The project’s initial investment was recovered in 12 years, and since then the revenue from Shinkansen has provided critical resources for local lines in Japan.
Each day thousands of people take to the skies and board airplanes that will take them on business or vacation travel. Quite a few even take to the air as a hobby. Air travel has become such a routine part of life that we often take for granted the immense infrastructure needed to ensure that our loved ones get to their final destinations efficiently and safely.
Last month, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported record airline delays. Weather and increased air traffic volume are major factors in these holdups, but the aviation industry’s consensus opinion is that the outdated, aging air traffic control system also is to blame. Failure to modernize our air traffic control system will result in crippling bottlenecks at our nation’s airports, to the great inconvenience of the traveling public and at a cost of roughly $30 billion annually to our economy.
The House and the Senate recently ended a quarter-century of procrastination and stonewalling when we voted for a dramatic rise in the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks.
