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Environmental

Update

 Printed on Recycled Paper

United States

Environmental Protection

Agency

Air and Radiation EPA400-F-99-001

February 1999

Air Quality Opportunities in the

Transportation Equity Act for the

21st Century (TEA-21)

What is TEA-21?

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) authorizes

expenditures of $218 billion from 1998 to 2003 to fund the development

and maintenance of the nation’s transportation infrastructure, while

protecting the environment and enhancing economic growth. The largest

public works program ever authorized, it will have a significant impact

on the air quality programs and issues being addressed by the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), and state and local agencies.

TEA-21 contains specific programs and provisions that offer great

potential for air quality improvement and other environmental benefits.

These provisions, highlighted below, encourage the following measures:

reduced single occupant vehicle travel; lower vehicle emissions rates;

alternative travel patterns and behavior that reduce vehicle miles traveled;

and integrated air quality policies to reduce air pollution from the transportation sector. States and local communities can take advantage of

these provisions to obtain federal funding for transportation projects that

include these and other measures.
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Congestion Mitigation and Air

Quality (CMAQ) Improvement

Program

Authorized funding for the Congestion

Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ)

Improvement Program increased from

approximately $1.1 billion per year under

the Intermodal Surface Transportation

Efficiency Act (ISTEA), to approximately

$1.5 billion per year under TEA-21. Funding is still targeted to ozone nonattainment

areas, but includes carbon monoxide and

particulate matter nonattainment areas as

well. The law also makes maintenance

areas and the nonattainment areas newly

designated under the 1997 revisions to the

National Ambient Air Quality Standards

eligible for CMAQ funds. TEA-21 requires

DOT and EPA to request the National

Academy of Sciences to study the air

quality benefits of CMAQ.

Environmental Streamlining

TEA-21 requires earlier and improved

coordination of all environmental reviews

for transportation projects. Under the new

process federal agencies will work together

more closely in considering potential

impacts of transportation projects on air

quality plans, endangered species, storm

water permitting, the National Environmental Policy Act compliance, and wetlands. The Secretary of Transportation is to

establish a coordinated environmental

review process for federal agencies, ensuring that major transportation projects are

advanced within time frames determined

cooperatively with the other federal agencies.

Surface Transportation

Program (STP)

The Surface Transportation Program (STP)

provides flexible funding that allows states

and localities to shift funds among various

program categories to invest in a wide

variety of transportation projects, including

but not limited to highways. TEA-21

expands and clarifies STP eligibilities, and

includes environmental projects such as

natural habitat mitigation, storm water

retrofit, programs to reduce extreme cold

starts of vehicles and capital and operational improvements for infrastructurebased intelligent transportation systems.

Transportation Enhancements

Improving Environmental

Quality and Safety

Transportation enhancement activities

continue to be funded through a 10 percent

set-aside from STP funds and a new one

percent set-aside from FTA’s urban formula

grant funds. The list of eligible projects

include, but are not limited to: bicycle and

pedestrian pathways, safety education

activities for pedestrians and bicyclists,

transit improvements, rails-to-trails conversions, and other projects that improve the

environmental qualities of existing transportation facilities.

Transit Benefits to Support

Commuter Choice

TEA-21 changes the Internal Revenue

Code to help level the playing field between parking benefits and commuting

benefits (Commuter Choice). For employ-
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ees, the limit on nontaxable transit and

vanpool benefits will increase from $65 per

month to $100 per month in 2002. The

changes also make it easier for an employer

to offer transit and vanpool benefits or cash

to an employee in lieu of free parking.

Value Pricing: Reducing

Congestion and Emissions,

Increasing Efficiency

Replacing the Congestion Pricing Pilot

Program authorized by ISTEA, the Value

Pricing Pilot Program provides funding for

pilot projects that establish pricing strategies for access to roads and bridges. Such

programs are aimed at reducing congestion

and air pollution. The program allows some

exceptions to the usual rules on federally

funded highway projects, including the use

of tolls on the Interstate System or permitting vehicles with fewer than two occupants to operate in high occupancy vehicle

lanes, so long as consideration is given to

potential impacts on low-income drivers.

Community Livability and

Preservation

The Transportation and Community and

System Preservation (TCSP) Pilot Program

encourages areas to investigate the relationships between transportation, community

and system preservation, and private

sector-based initiatives. The program

provides funding, through a competitive

grant process, to state and local governments and to metropolitan planning organizations for discretionary planning and

implementation, with the aim of demonstrating the feasibility and desirability of

coordinating local transportation, environmental, and land-use policies and programs. TEA-21 authorizes $20 million in

the 1999 fiscal year and $25 million in

subsequent years for this pilot program.

For Further Information

For a full text of TEA-21, DOT fact sheets,

CMAQ Program data, and outreach information, visit the DOT’s website at:

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov.

For more information on transportation and

air quality programs, visit the EPA’s Transportation Air Quality (TRAQ) Center

website at:

http://www.epa.gov/oms/traq

or call the TRAQ Center Information

Request Line at:

(734) 214-4100.