REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

BUFFALO TRANSPORTATION FORUM
BUFFALO, NY

MARCH 3, 2008
2:30 PM

Thank you, Congressman Reynolds, for those kind words. Tom invited me to see Buffalo first-hand, and it is clear he knows his district well. He is on the right track when it comes to preparing this region for the transportation challenges ahead, and I look forward to working with him in the future.

And thank you to our hosts, Erie County Community College. It is particularly fitting to be holding this forum at a place of learning. America is in the midst of a historical transformation in our approach to transportation infrastructure, and everyone here — from students to professors to local officials have the chance to help lead that change.

We at the Department of Transportation are working to fundamentally transform 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 failings of the current system are clear. Over the last 25 years, traffic congestion has increased 300 per cent 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 do not support putting more money into the system. The public is acutely aware of what is going on – after all, they experience the system’s shortcomings every day.

But now it is 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. In addition to the existing record levels of federal funding, it has been estimated by the Financial Times that 400 billion private sector dollars are available right now for road, bridge, and transit projects – if we have the will to use them.

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. All we need is the political courage to embrace a new way forward in transportation financing and construction.

That is because the $400 billion I mentioned earlier does not 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 immediately for investment in transportation. And, that huge amount is on top of already-record levels of federal highway funding.

Right here in Buffalo, we can use revenue generated from private sources to spur economic development and build new, ambitious projects. And we can do it right now.

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

Public private partnerships are at work right now, 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.

Public private partnerships are not just pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams. They are real solutions being used by real leaders in this country and around the world to supplement finite public sector funds.

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 am pretty sure we can, too.

Also, in December, we helped Virginia sign 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 the government would let us.”

We want to encourage, not discourage investment, and we want to inspire innovation, not stifle it. So in the coming months, the 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. And by saying “NO” to spending transportation dollars on museums and lighthouses.

It is critical that the next transportation bill doesn’t settle for incremental increases in spending and exponential decreases in results, but instead embraces new investments to design, fund, and build the system we deserve and need.

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

The year ahead is going to be a defining one for transportation in the United States. This is a tremendous opportunity to open the door to the kinds of transportation solutions that come about when the private sector and communities and states are free to innovate. And I look forward to working with leaders like Congressman Reynolds to create real change.

Thank you so much for joining me today, and I look forward to answering your questions.

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