APTA | Passenger Transport
March 29, 2010

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NEWS HEADLINES

LaHood Anticipates More Aid to Cities

On March 15—the same day he addressed the APTA Legislative Conference (see related story)—Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood thanked the members of the National League of Cities (NLC) for their support of federal livability and infrastructure measures at the organization’s annual Congressional City Conference in Washington.

In keeping with NLC’s theme, “The Route Ahead,” LaHood talked about how DOT’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program is “changing the rules of the game” rather than just “awarding winners a pile of money.” He explained: “For the first time, the application process for these discretionary grants allowed cities to apply directly to DOT for funding. And these grants were open to the kind of multimodal projects we simply aren't allowed to fund through our traditional, segmented programs.”

The next step, he said, is to “build on TIGER's success by empowering cities to have more input and control over how federal transportation dollars are spent to support local goals. It just makes sense that local planners know the kinds of outcomes their communities want and need.”

He also described how DOT has broadened its project evaluation criteria to incorporate “a wide range of measures including sustainability, livability, and potential for economic development … three changes that ought to give us all hope for a new era of transportation projects, in cities and suburbs and rural areas alike.”

LaHood emphasized: “America's cities were the incubators of many transportation innovations this past year. From bike boxes at intersections to transit-oriented affordable housing development, our cities have been pioneers."

“I, for one, am looking forward to what they'll show us in the year ahead.”

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