Taking the High Road A Metropolitan Agenda for Transportation Reform

by Katz, Bruce; Puentes, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780815748274
• ISBN10: 0815748272
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-05
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Summary

Since the early 1990s, federal transportation laws have slowly started to level the playing field between highway and alternative transportation strategies, as well as between older and newer communities. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century made substantial changes in transportation practices. These laws devolved greater responsibility for planning and implementation to urban development organizations and introduced more flexibility in the spending of federal highway and transit funds. They also created a series of special programs to carry out important national objectives, and they tightened the linkages between transportation spending and issues such as metropolitan air quality.Taking the High Road examines the most pressing transportation challenges facing American cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas. The authors focus on the central issues in the ongoing debate and deliberations about the nation's transportation policy. They go beyond the federal debate, however, to lay out an agenda for reform that responds directly to those responsible for putting these policies into practice --leaders at the state, metropolitan, and local levels. This book presents public officials with options for reform. Hoping to build upon the progress and momentum of earlier transportation laws, it ensures a better understanding of the problems and provides policymakers, journalists, and the public with a comprehensive guide to the numerous issues that must be addressed. Topics include A wide-ranging policy framework that addresses the reauthorization debate An examination of transportation finance and how it affects cities and suburbs An analysis of metropolitan decisionmaking in transportation The challenges of transportation access for working families and the elderly The problems of increasing traffic congestion and the lack of adequate alternativesContributors include Scott Bernstein (Center for Neighborhood Technology), Edward Biemborn (University of Wisconsin), Evelyn Blumenberg (UCLA), John Brennan (Cleveland State University), Anthony Downs (Brookings), Billie K. Geyer (Cleveland State), Edward W. Hill (Cleveland State), Arnold Howitt (Harvard University), Kevin E. O'Brien (Cleveland State), Ryan Prince (Brookings), Claudette Robey (Cleveland State), Sandra Rosenbloom (University of Arizona), Thomas Sanchez (Virginia Tech), Martin Wachs (University of California, Berkeley), and Margy Waller (Brookings).

Table of Contents

FOREWORD	vii
Edward G. Rendell
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	ix
Part One A Metropolitan Agenda for Transportation
1 Transportation Reform for the Twenty-First Century: An Overview	3	(12)
Bruce Katz and Robert Puentes
2 Getting Transportation Right for Metropolitan America	15	(30)
Bruce Katz, Robert Puentes, and Scott Bernstein
Part Two Financing the Transportation System
3 Fueling Transportation Finance: A Primer on the Gas Tax	45	(32)
Robert Puentes and Ryan Prince
4 Improving Efficiency and Equity in Transportation Finance	77	(24)
Martin Wachs
5 Slanted Pavement: How Ohio's Highway Spending Shortchanges Cities and Suburbs	101	(38)
Edward Hill, Billie Geyer, Robert Puentes, Kevin O'Brien, Claudette Robey, and John Brennan
Part Three Getting the Geography of Transportation Right
6 Increasing Funding and Accountability for Metropolitan Transportation Decisions	139	(30)
Robert Puentes and Linda Bailey
7 The Need for Regional Anticongestion Policies	169	(28)
Anthony Downs and Robert Puentes
Part Four Meeting Societal Needs in Transportation
8 The Long Journey to Work: A Federal Transportation Policy for Working Families	197	(30)
Evelyn Blumenberg and Margy Waller
9 The Mobility Needs of Older Americans: Implications for Transportation Reauthorization	227	(30)
Sandra Rosenbloom
Part Five Other Important Metropolitan Transportation Issues
10 Highways and Transit: Leveling the Playing Field in Federal Transportation Policy	257	(30)
Edward Beimborn and Robert Puentes
11 Protecting America's Highways and Transit Systems against Terrorism	287	(28)
Arnold Howitt and Jonathan Makler
CONTRIBUTORS	315	(2)
INDEX	317