Four years ago, candidate Clinton promised to rebuild our decaying infrastructure as a keystone of his plan to develop our economy and generate jobs. In spite of the 1996 campaign bridge metaphor, he appears to have forgotten the program. Continued neglect of our infrastructure will have tragic consequences for this nation and region. Improvement program needs criteria for awarding funds. Equity and need get disregarded because there is no overall strategy for using the funds.
Some projects are counter productive, actually increasing vehicular travel.
Moreover, due to lack of matching funds by the state and city, many programs which have been approved for more than two years have not even been started. What this boils down to is the need for a more equitable distribution of CMAQ funds, one that genuinely reflects the intent of Congress, to reduce congestion and thereby reduce mobile source air pollution. If this cannot be done, then I suggest the CMAQ program be abandoned. More money must be pumped into transportation, both to rebuild our infrastructure, and to assist public transit. This can be accomplished by a gradual shift of expenditures.