Current levels of transportation funding are far below where they should be if the nation is to maintain its public transportation systems and highways, according to a new DOT report titled 2010 Status of the Nation's Highways, Bridges, and Transit: Conditions and Performance.

This report projects a necessary annual investment of between $20.8 billion and $24.5 billion from all levels of government—local, state, and federal—over the next 20 years to attain a state of good repair for the nation’s public transportation systems and to accommodate expected public transit ridership growth. In contrast, all levels of government combined spent only $16.1 billion on public transit capital improvements in 2008.

The administration’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request includes $108 billion over six years for public transit options, a 105 percent increase over previous authorization levels.

“Today, more and more Americans are looking for greater choices in transportation," said Peter M. Rogoff, administrator of the Federal Transit Administration. “With gas prices on the rise, we need to heed President Obama’s call to invest in America's infrastructure, in order to ensure that transit remains a reliable and desirable choice.”

Conditions and Performance is a biennial report to Congress that provides information on the physical and operating characteristics of the public transit, highway, and bridge components of the U.S. surface transportation system. The text of the report is available here.

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