STATEMENT OF
JENNIFER L. DORN
FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATOR
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHWAYS AND TRANSIT
Of the
COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 17, 2002
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to talk with you about the importance of stable funding for public transportation in America's communities. As we begin to discuss reauthorization of the Federal transit programs under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), I cannot think of a more important issue than the relationship between the quality, availability, and accessibility of public transportation services in our communities and the quality of life and economic vitality of our communities. Public transportation benefits people who choose to ride it, and it benefits those who have no choice; even people who choose not to ride public transportation benefit from the more vibrant, healthy community that it fosters.
In recent years, transit has experienced the highest percentage of ridership growth among all modes of surface transportation, growing over 28 percent between 1993 and 2001. Last year, people rode our Nation's public transportation systems 9.6 billion times -- traveling to and from work, medical appointments, school, and social events. Nearly two-thirds of these trips were on buses.
While most public transportation trips continue to occur in major metropolitan areas, public transportation is becoming increasingly important in smaller urban and rural areas, as well. Among transit agencies that receive Section 5311 funds, the number of passenger trips reached an estimated 154 million in 2000, an increase of 62 percent since 1994. During the same period, miles traveled increased by an estimated 93 percent, meaning that people are not only taking public transportation more often, but also for longer distances.
Not coincidentally, these increases in ridership have occurred during a period when the condition of our Nation's public transportation assets improved markedly and the availability of public transportation increased substantially.
Why have transit ridership and availability grown so much? The answer, I believe, can be found in the fact that public transportation connects communities - and communities are recognizing and capitalizing on the benefits of more efficient, comfortable, and effective public transportation systems. This recognition has spurred unprecedented levels of investment in public transportation. In fact, the total capital investment in public transportation, including State, local and Federal funds, has increased by nearly 90 percent over the last ten years (1991 to 2000). The role of the Federal Government has been stable during this period, accounting for approximately 50 percent of capital investment in transit.
In 1991, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) introduced the flexibility that allowed Federal funds to be used for local priorities. In 1998, TEA-21 established a level of funding stability that has facilitated unprecedented investment and growth. Dependable levels of funding - for both formula funds and full funding grant agreements - have improved the ability of transit agencies to finance, plan, and execute projects.
Dependable Funding
For large transit agencies, dependable Federal funding is often essential to the creation of similarly stable local funding mechanisms. New Jersey is one good example of this effect. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Project includes almost 15 miles of rail line, 59 light rail vehicles and represents a total investment of $2.2 billion. Phase II of the Hudson-Bergen full funding grant agreement provides $500 million in Federal New Starts funding over five years. New Jersey Transit was able to issue $450 million in grant anticipation bonds based largely on this New Starts commitment. The bonds are structured for repayment through 2011. However, the availability of capital now allows construction to be completed by 2005, even though the first Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) funds will not be received until 2004. The result of a dependable Federal funding source is that the project will be completed three years early and cost $300 million less.
The benefits of stable funding are not limited to large agencies and large FFGA's. Phoenix Transit is a small agency with a fleet of 350 buses, making 33 million passenger trips each year. Because of its limited funding stream, it cannot access capital markets on its own. However, this agency has effectively leveraged its Federal Transit Administration (FTA) formula funding to speed up the procurement of Clean Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles and fueling infrastructure by utilizing bonds. The City of Phoenix issued $18 million in grant anticipation bonds to Phoenix Transit based solely on the stream of formula funds guaranteed through TEA-21. Phoenix Transit was able to upgrade its fleet of vehicles and install the fueling infrastructure to keep the buses rolling, all within a single year. Without the ability to leverage the stability of its formula funds, Phoenix Transit would have needed three or more years to purchase the same number of vehicles and install the required infrastructure. Further, Phoenix Transit estimates that it saved an average of $30,000 per bus - a total of $1.65 million - because it was able to purchase a larger quantity of vehicles at one time. Dependable formula funds help agencies do more with limited resources.
Innovative Financing
Dependability can offer even more opportunities to leverage resources when coupled with innovative financing techniques. Under TEA-21, Congress established the Transportation Infrastructure Financing Investment Act (TIFIA) financing mechanism, a loan and loan guarantee program for surface transportation projects. Recently, Staten Island Ferry signed a TIFIA loan agreement for $159 million to purchase three additional ferryboats and complete the reconstruction of its ferry terminal. After September 11, when ferries carried over 60,000 people safely out of Manhattan, reliable ferry service has become even more important to mobility in the New York metropolitan region. Staten Island Ferry was able to leverage $57 million in FTA and Federal Highway funds, along with an additional $264 million of State and local monies, to secure the TIFIA loan. In the absence of TIFIA, the purchase of ferryboats and terminal modernization would have been delayed until additional funds could be accumulated to complete the project.
TEA-21 made a total of $10.6 billion in lending authority available for surface transportation projects. To date, approximately $3.1 billion has been borrowed and leveraged to support over $10 billion in surface transportation projects. Although TIFIA is by no means the only innovative financing mechanism available to the industry, it illustrates how such techniques can reduce the total cost of projects, speed up implementation, and leverage Federal investments. The Department looks forward to working with Congress to identify additional ways in which reauthorization can promote and support innovative financing.
Flexible Funding
With the dependable formula and capital grant funding made available under TEA-21, FTA has helped many communities realize better, safer, more efficient public transportation systems. Many leaders now realize that public transportation must diversify its product line and offer services that are more tailored to the needs of the traveling public. While fixed route systems are likely to continue to be the backbone of our public transportation systems, many communities have recognized that they must do more. So communities are working hard to design services that take individuals where they want to go, when they want to go, in an efficient, comfortable and convenient way.
One implication of this approach is that more attention is being paid to the fact that customers need more than one mode of transportation available to them, often for the same trip. Transit must connect to airports and train stations; highways must connect to transit; people must have a place to park cars at key transit junctions. Reauthorization is not and should not become a transit versus highways issue. The fact is, good transit doesn't work well without good highways; good highways don't work well without good transit; and neither works as well as it can without good community planning.
Under TEA-21, communities considering major transit projects begin by listening. The best projects emerge through the meaningful involvement of all interested parties in a community. How this is done varies from the proactive engagement of the general public, to the creation of task forces to address special needs. Some communities use a more traditional public hearing approach; others have gone "high tech." In Portland, Oregon, for example, they have created "Let's Talk," a regional discussion focused on growth, complete with an interactive 2040 concept map that shows how a neighborhood might look 40 years from now.
The success of such efforts is evident in communities like Boulder, Colorado, where the GO Boulder program has been helping to preserve the quality of life by encouraging individuals and businesses to make alternative transportation a part of their lives. Boulder's unique "Hop, Skip, Jump, Leap and Bound" system was designed with the goal of holding traffic to 1994 levels and a commitment to a multi-modal transportation system. Using community meetings, surveys, focus groups, and even a citizen design group, Boulder created a system that is so convenient, enjoyable, and responsive that fully 60 percent of the 100,000 Boulder residents have purchased public transportation passes.
Among the most important tools at a community's disposal as it develops community-responsive transportation plans are the "flexible funding" provisions of TEA-21. These provisions permit communities to develop transportation solutions that meet their unique needs, and enable decision makers to consider the cost-effectiveness of all transportation options, as well as their potential impact on traffic congestion, air pollution, urban sprawl, economic development, and quality of life. Under ISTEA and TEA-21, more than $7.7 billion has been transferred from title 23 highway programs to public transportation programs; during the same period, less than $50 million has been transferred from transit programs to highway programs.
Public/Private Partnerships in Joint Development
Communities are also taking advantage of FTA's Joint Development rules under TEA-21 that allow transit agencies to create new revenue streams, while encouraging development around stations and transportation centers to help communities in their efforts to discourage sprawl. Consider, for example, the efforts of Prince William County, Virginia - a community under tremendous population growth pressure. There, the transit agency and a local developer are working together to ensure the success of a new "town center" and commuter rail station. The developer will be funding both the capital investment and ongoing maintenance expenses for 550 commuter parking spaces and road access to the planned rail station. The new rail station is expected not only to encourage local residents to visit the new town center, but also to bring daily commuter business to the retail stores and restaurants in the development.
In fact, the entire Washington, DC area is a prime example of how transit can spur economic development. A Washington area Council of Governments study found that, during the 1990s, 40 percent of the real estate development in the area (nearly $15 billion in private development) took place on just 3 percent of the land - the land around MetroRail stations.
Similar economic and community enhancement stories can be found in many communities. The MetroLink light rail system in St. Louis, Missouri, for example, was a catalyst for the development of a $266 million convention center hotel, a $60 million performing arts center, and the $5.8 million Jackie Joyner Kersey Sports Complex. And the Busch Stadium MetroLink station provides easy access to the $646 million Ballpark Village, the largest single development in the city's history.
Programs like Location Efficient Mortgages and Commuter Choice are also providing communities with new tools to enhance livability. Under their Transportation for Livable Communities program, for example, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in San Francisco has allocated $62.5 million in Federal and local funds to Bay Area cities in order to revitalize neighborhoods and commercial districts, and support compact, mixed-use pedestrian-, bike- and transit-oriented development that promotes smart growth principles. Under their Housing Incentive Program, about $9 million will go to 15 cities when they break ground on high-density housing near public transportation. This program is the first in the Nation to use Federal transportation dollars as an incentive to build compact housing near transit.
Of course, as one local Washington area councilman noted, it is not enough to simply build projects on top of Metro stations. "Smart growth," he said, "has to be coupled with smart transit solutions." Communities and developers must work to ensure that new development doesn't add even more cars to already congested roads - with solutions like offering shuttle bus services, managing parking, underwriting transit fares and coordinating ride-share programs.
Personal Freedom and Mobility
Having sought personal independence and mobility through the automobile in the decades following World War II, many Americans are reassessing their almost exclusive devotion to the car. Even today, however, for most people "mobility" still means the family car.
But people whose age, income, or disability prevents the use of a car are often unable to avail themselves of the many opportunities our society provides without public transportation. In a recent survey, the American Public Transportation Association found that 20 percent of transit riders would not have made their current trip without transit, and nearly 70 percent did not have access to a car at the time the trip was made.
Among public assistance recipients, almost 94 percent do not own cars, and rely on public transportation for basic mobility. Under TEA-21, the Job Access and Reverse Commute program brings together transportation planners and operators to tackle the unique challenges of job-seekers from low income areas. And it is successfully producing a diverse set of services to meet these needs. Many of the services are paratransit services, such as guaranteed-ride home programs, special shuttle and van services, demand-responsive dial-a-ride services, and late-night and weekend services.
In the Charlottesville area of Virginia, the community has utilized Job Access and Reverse Commute funding to establish a 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week transportation program for qualified low-income persons in a 2,000 square mile service area. One urban rider who works a third shift hospital job and has children in day care says that if it weren't for the transportation program, she wouldn't be able to keep her job. And social workers in the area say that this system has completely eliminated transportation as an obstacle to finding and keeping a job for welfare recipients.
According to the National Organization on Disability, 60 percent of adults with disabilities report that access to transit service has improved since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law in 1990. Today, over 80 percent of transit buses are accessible, we have built almost 30 new accessible rail systems across the country, and more than half of the key stations in the older rail systems in places like New York and Chicago are now accessible.
Despite this progress, transportation challenges continue to confront persons with disabilities. Thirty percent of adults with disabilities still cite inadequate transportation as a problem in daily living. In contrast, among non-disabled adults, only 10 percent report inadequate transportation as an impediment to their basic mobility.
The ADA requires that existing public transportation be accessible; but it does not address the gaps that exist in transportation services for persons with disabilities. The President's New Freedom Initiative would expand the transportation mobility options available to persons with disabilities beyond the minimum required under the ADA, helping to fill the gaps in service that limit employment opportunities.
Keeping our Communities Safe and Secure
Secretary Mineta recently noted that public transportation must play an important role in achieving the President's three important goals of winning the war against terrorism, protecting our homeland, and getting the American economy moving again.
Public transportation has long played an important role in helping communities cope with natural disasters. In 1989, San Francisco's rapid transportation system was critical to the community as it coped with the collapse and reconstruction of major roads after the Loma Prieta earthquake. And, 1999, public transportation systems in North Carolina evacuated residents and transported relief workers in response to Hurricane Floyd.
But the events of September 11 gave our communities an even better understanding of the role of public transportation during emergency situations. In New York and Washington, public transportation safely evacuated millions of people from the center cities, and, throughout the nation, public transportation systems came to the aid of people who were stranded at unexpected destinations when air travel was halted.
One important lesson of September 11 has been that the safety and security of our communities is significantly enhanced when public transportation systems are linked to police, fire, medical and other emergency response agencies through community-wide planning, emergency response drills, and centralized emergency command centers. I am proud that FTA is taking the lead to bring these important community leaders together at emergency response planning forums around the county.
Soon after the September attacks, FTA began implementing a major security initiative, focused first on the nation's high risk/high consequence transit assets. Generally, that means the subway tunnels and stations where the large numbers of people converge and where an attack would cause the greatest disruption to transportation services. As part of this initiative, FTA has engaged teams of experts in security, anti-terrorism, and transit to conduct voluntary security assessments of 33 public transportation systems. Chosen because of their high ridership levels, the potential vulnerability of subway systems, and the potentially serious consequences of a successful terrorist attack, all 33 agencies are voluntarily participating in the assessment program. The assessments will be completed by the end of May.
Each assessment includes a threat and vulnerability analysis, an evaluation of the security and emergency response plans, and a focused review of the community's unified emergency command structure. Based on the findings of the assessment, FTA is offering direct technical assistance to enhance security, modify emergency response plans, conduct practice drills, and train employees.
The assessments are proving to be an effective tool for both the FTA and the participating agencies. We have identified important concerns at even the most well- prepared agencies, and have recommended solutions to manage these risks. At the same time, we are identifying best practices for training and response protocols, and are sharing these with the industry. Recently, for example, guidance on responding to a chemical attack in a subway environment was distributed to transit agencies with underground stations; similar guidance with regard to biological attacks will be issued soon. We are also working to make standard operating procedures applicable to bus, light rail and other transit environments, and will make that available as soon as possible.
We will continue to look for new opportunities to enhance transit security, while maintaining the open and accessible nature of our public transportation systems.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, under TEA-21, real success has been achieved when public transportation has been given the opportunity to work with citizens and with State and local decision makers to envision, plan and develop economically vital communities. Public transportation is, indeed, the key to connecting communities - ensuring that every American has access to the employment opportunities, services, and recreational facilities in the community, and helping businesses gain access to and attract customers and employees. From small communities to our largest urban centers, TEA-21 has fostered increased mobility, more choices, and more economically vital communities for millions of Americans. Today, as we begin to consider the reauthorization of our Nation's surface transportation laws, we have an important opportunity to further strengthen the fabric of our communities and our Nation.
Mr. Chairman, thank you again for the opportunity to testify today. I would be happy to respond to questions.
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