The Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
Hearing on
Transportation Solutions in a Community Context:
The Need for Better Transportation Systems for Everyone

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PURPOSE

The Subcommittee on Highways and Transit will meet on Thursday, July 25, 2002, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2167 of the Rayburn House Office Building to receive testimony from various national advocacy groups and other experts on "non-traditional" transportation programs. The primary focus of the hearing is to discuss how transportation systems affect the quality of life of all segments of the community.

The witnesses represent a gamut of interests, ranging from the very broad to the very specific. The transportation needs of older Americans, people with disabilities, school children, leisure travelers, bicyclists, recreational trail users, and motorcyclists will be explored. There are a number of TEA 21 authorized programs that support these needs, often with considerable overlapping between programs and interest groups.

While this hearing will address many non-highway and enhancement programs, it is important to remember that public roads carry over 90 percent of all passenger trips, whether these trips are commuter, school transportation, travel and leisure, or everyday errands. Without adequate and safe roads, quality of life is dramatically reduced on every level.

BACKGROUND

Transportation Needs of Older Americans

Transportation provides the link between home and community and serves as the bridge to the goods, services, and opportunities for social engagement so crucial to successful and happy aging. Focus groups conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have explored the perceptions and preferences of older drivers and non-drivers from which several themes emerged.

Seniors strongly prefer automobile-based transportation for as long as possible because there is a perception that automobiles provide greater reliability, convenience, spontaneity, personal security and flexibility.
Seniors lack information about community transportation in non-urban settings.
There is a need to better facilitate safe driving as people age (e.g., improved road design, or tailoring driver education to the needs of older drivers).
There is a need for better transitioning from driving to non-driving.
There is a need for better dissemination of information on community transportation services.

Transportation Needs of Persons with Disabilities

America is home to more that 54 million people with disabilities. In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the civil-rights law that ensures individuals with disabilities access to employment, education, state and local government programs and services, businesses, telecommunications, and public transportation. Congress originally commissioned Easter Seals Project ACTION in 1988 as a research and demonstration project to improve access to public transportation for people with disabilities. With the passage of the ADA two years later, the agency's goals expanded to help transportation operators implement the law's transportation provisions. Project ACTION was authorized in both ISTEA and TEA 21, and receives funding through the Federal Transit Administration. The group's primary activities are to assess the transportation needs of people with disabilities in local communities, provide outreach and marketing strategies to transportation providers, and research technologies to eliminate barriers to transportation accessibility.

School Transportation Safety

TEA 21 mandated a Transportation Research Board (TRB) study on the relative risks of school travel, comparing modes of travel. The study, which was released in June 2002, found that the safest mode of school travel, by far, was by school or transit bus. Each year approximately 800 school-aged children are killed in motor vehicle crashes during normal school hours. A disproportionate share of passenger vehicle-related deaths occur when a teenager is driving. Walking or bicycling to school is also more risky than expected on the basis of exposure data - 22 percent of fatalities for children traveling to and from school between 1991 and 2001 occurred when children were bicycling or walking. These data are not meaningful unless effective policies are implemented to reduce the risks identified in the report. Communities around the country are implementing "Safe Routes to School" programs to create a safer, more secure environment for children to walk or bicycle to school. The TRB report provides a checklist to help ascertain the walking and bicycling safety of the school environment and a series of recommendations for local decision-makers who are putting such programs in place.

Infrastructure Programs

Many infrastructure programs other than the core highway apportionments to States will be addressed by witnesses at the hearing.

TRAILS -- Two witnesses will testify on trails programs: both recreational trails that are funded by fuel taxes and are available for both motorized and non-motorized recreational users (authorized at $50 million in FY 2003), and bike and pedestrian trails that are funded through Transportation Enhancements and other funds. Each state is required to set-aside 10 percent of its Surface Transportation Program funds for transportation enhancements, which are transportation-related activities that are designed to strengthen the cultural, aesthetic, and environmental aspects of the transportation system.

NATIONAL SCENIC BYWAYS -- The National Scenic Byways Program provides for the designation by the Secretary of Transportation of roads that have outstanding scenic, historic, cultural, natural, recreational, and archaeological qualities as All-American Roads or National Scenic Byways. This discretionary program is authorized for $26.5 million in FY 2003. Last year, for the first time, scenic byways projects were earmarked in the Transportation Appropriations bill.

WITNESSES

PANEL I

Ms. Mary Jane O' Gara
Member, Board of Directors
AARP

Ms. Bryna Helfer
Director
Easter Seals Project ACTION

Mr. James C. Fell
Director of Traffic Safety and Enforcement Programs
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
On behalf of Transportation Research Board/National Research Council

Richard E. Killingsworth
Director, Active Living by Design National Program Office
The University of North Carolina-School of Public Health

Mr. John Shaffer
Director, Marketing and Sales
Luray Caverns
On behalf of Travel Industry Association

Ms. Jacky Grimshaw
Chair, Steering Committee
Surface Transportation Policy Project

PANEL II

Ms. Elissa Margolin
Executive Director
League of American Bicyclists

Ms. Meg Maguire
President
Scenic America

Mr. Keith Laughlin
President
Rails to Trails Conservancy
AND
Mr. Derrick Crandall
President
American Recreation Coalition

Mr. Ed Moreland
Vice President, Government Relations
American Motorcycle Association
AND
Mr. Tom Wyld
Vice President, Government Relations
Motorcycle Riders Foundation

The Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Hearing on Transportation Solutions in a Community Context: The Need for Better Transportation Systems for Everyone

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