TESTIMONY OF
THE
AMERICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY POLICY, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND REGULATORY
AFFAIRS
OF THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
ON
PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
(Download
in Adobe PDF format)
*******
October 7, 2004
SUBMITTED BY
American Public Transportation Association
1666 K Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 496-4800
Fax: (202) 496-4324
APTA is a nonprofit international association of over
1,500 public and private member organizations including transit systems and
commuter rail operators; planning, design, construction and finance firms;
product and service providers; academic institutions; transit associations
and state departments of transportation. APTA members serve the public interest
by providing safe, efficient and economical transit services and products.
Over ninety percent of persons using public transportation in the United States
and Canada are served by APTA members.
Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the American Public Transportation
Association (APTA) and its 1,500 member organizations, we thank you for this
opportunity to provide testimony for the record of the Committee’s hearing
on private participation in the provision of public transportation services.
About APTA
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA)
is a nonprofit international association of more than 1,500 public and private
member organizations including transit systems and commuter rail operators;
planning, design, construction, and finance firms; product and service providers;
academic institutions; transit associations and state departments of transportation.
APTA members serve the public interest by providing safe, efficient, and economical
transit services and products. More than ninety percent of the people using
public transportation in the United States and Canada are served by APTA member
systems.
Overview
Throughout the U.S., public transportation is undergoing
a renaissance. Steady increases in transit investment have significantly improved
and expanded public transportation services, attracting record numbers of
riders on state-of-the-art systems in metropolitan and rural areas alike.
In 2004 alone, new light rail systems have opened in Houston and Minneapolis,
and Las Vegas opened a monorail system built with private sector financing.
In 2002, Americans took 9.6 billion trips using public transportation.
Between 1995 and 2003, public transportation ridership grew by more than 21
percent, faster than highway or air travel. Some 25 million trips are taken
every day on public transportation. Public transportation provides opportunities
for people from every walk of life by making transportation choices and options
available. According to APTA data, work is the most popular transit destination
with 54 percent of all trips ending at workplaces. Fifteen percent of trips
go to schools; nine percent to shop; nine percent for social visits; and five
percent for medical appointments.
Private Sector Participation in Public Transportation
APTA and its members have long supported the private enterprise
provisions of federal transit law and policy that require the local transportation
planning process to include the participation of private enterprise in the
provision of public transportation services to the maximum extent feasible.
A few points in that regard -
- Of APTA’s 1500 member organizations, approximately 600 are private sector
suppliers of goods and services to the public transportation industry, as
well as planning, design, construction and finance companies and private
sector consultants to the public transit industry.
- Each year public transportation expends approximately $37.6 billion on
transit needs: $12.8 billion on capital expenditures and $24.8 billion on
operating expenses. Capital funds are used to finance infrastructure needs
such as new construction and rehabilitation of existing facilities. The
federal government contributes 40 percent of all capital funding for public
transportation, and essentially all of that capital investment flows
through public transit systems into the private sector. Capital investment
in public transportation translates into thousands of private sector jobs
in the design, construction, and manufacturing industries and in the retail
and retail/wholesale sectors throughout the country. For example, transit
bus manufacturers are located in places like Lamar, Colorado, Brownsville,
Texas, St. Cloud, Minnesota, Hayward, California, Anniston, Alabama, Oriskany,
New York, and other heartland cities of America.
- The growth in services that the public transit industry contracts out
to the private sector has grown dramatically over the past decade, and now
represents approximately $3 billion a year, an increase of 195 percent over
the past decade.
- APTA public transit members have undertaken significant joint development
activities with private sector entities across the country. In addition,
the private sector members of the Urban Land Institute and the National
Association of Realtors are strongly supportive of transit-oriented development
activities. A September, 2004 report by the Center for Transit Oriented
Development, "Hidden in Plain Sight", estimates the demand for
new housing within a half-mile of 27 existing transit rails systems and
15 planned new systems over the next 20 years – meeting this new demand
would require building some 2,100 residential units near each of the 3,900
transit stations studied.
- APTA and the American Bus Association have been in discussions to try
to come to agreement on ways to make the longstanding charter bus provisions
of federal transit law easier to understand and administer so that members
of both organizations are better able to work together within the regulatory
framework.
- APTA continues to work closely with the Federal Transit Administration
in providing opportunities for FTA to participate in a range of APTA meetings
and conferences to underline the importance of private sector involvement
in the provision of public transportation services.
These are just a few of the examples of the activities that
APTA and its public and private members are involved with regarding private
sector participation in public transportation. We would be pleased to provide
any additional information in that regard the Committee may request for the
record of the hearing.
We would also like to provide the following brief summary
of the benefits of public transportation, which include job creation and economic
development in the private sector.
The Benefits of Public Transportation
It is clear that investment in public transportation at the
federal, state and local level pays enormous dividends. Public transportation
benefits the quality of life in communities across the country by providing
safe, efficient and economical transportation service. Importantly, public
transportation is also a vital component for a healthy economy. While public
transportation benefits the people who use it, society in general benefits
from its availability. San Diego, Denver and Phoenix and many other cities
have important transit ballot measures before the voters this fall. Advocates
in those cities will be pointing out that public transportation -
- Creates and Sustains Jobs
The public transportation industry creates jobs for the nation’s
economy. In addition to the 374,000 people directly employed by the public
transportation industry and thousands of others employed in the directly related
engineering, construction, manufacturing and retail industries, other jobs
are created. Every $1 billion in federal funding invested in public transportation
infrastructure generates approximately 47,500
American jobs, proving that transit continues to be an economic engine.
Almost half of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies, representing
over $2 trillion in annual revenue, are headquartered in America’s transit-intensive
metropolitan areas. Examples of cities where companies have located near public
transportation are many and include Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas.
- Stimulates Economic Development
New analysis confirms the important and positive economic
impact of public transportation investment on new development and business
revenues. A Cambridge Systematics study estimated that each $10 million in
capital investment yields $30 million in increased sales, while each $10 million
operating investment yields $32 million.
Every dollar taxpayers invest in public transportation generates
up to $6 in economic returns.
Public transportation helps to alleviate the crowded conditions
on our nation’s increasingly crowded network of roadways. Roadway congestion
cost nearly $70 billion in 2001 in the 75 urban areas studied, according to
the 2003 Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Annual Urban Mobility
Report. In 2001, each American traveling during peak periods wasted on
average 60 hours a year-nearly eight full working days in traffic congestion.
The 2003 TTI study found that transit is successfully reducing
traffic delays and costs in America’s 75 largest urban areas. The 2003 study
reported that regular bus and train services in America’s most congested cities
saved drivers more than one billion hours in travel time in 2001. Without
transit, nationwide delays would have increased by nearly 30 percent, costing
residents in the major urban areas studied an additional $21.2 billion in
lost time and fuel.
Traffic congestion in small urban and rural areas is increasing
by 11 percent a year–twice the rate in urban areas.
- Fosters More Livable Communities
Public transportation facilities and transportation corridors
are "natural focal points for communities" for economic and social
activities and help create strong neighborhood centers that are more economically
stable, safe, and productive. These are areas where people can drive less
or walk. When commuters ride public transportation or walk, face-to-face contact
with neighbors tends to increase, which works to bring a community closer.
- Provides Mobility for Seniors
By the year 2020, 40 percent of the U.S. population will
be senior citizens and many will be unable to drive. In fact, one-fourth of
today’s 75+ age group does not drive. For America’s aging population, physical
isolation is a growing problem. A 2002 AARP study found that compared to people
ages 50 to 74, nearly four times as many people over 85 (41 percent vs. 12
percent) had not left home the previous day.
Meeting the transportation needs of seniors is a major community
objective as well as a national goal. Public transportation services, including
regular route service and mini-buses represent a lifeline for seniors, linking
them with family, friends and a changing society.
- Provides Access for Rural Areas
Public transportation is equally important to America’s rural
heartland, where 40 percent of residents have no access to public transportation
services and another 25 percent have negligible access. Transportation service
is seen as vital for rural America’s 30 million non-drivers, who include senior
citizens, low-income families and people with disabilities.
Both AASHTO and APTA estimate that rural and small urban
investment needs are approximately $1 billion a year over the next six-year
reauthorization period.
- Enhances Real Estate Values
Real estate-- residential, commercial and business-- served
by high quality public transportation can command higher rents and maintain
higher value than similar properties not as well served by transit.
Public transportation reduces pollution. Public transportation
produces 95 percent less carbon monoxide (CO), more than 92 percent fewer
volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nearly half as much carbon dioxide (CO2)
and nitrogen oxides (NOx) for every passenger mile traveled. Public transportation
reduces annual emissions for the pollutants that create smog, VOCs and NOx,
by more than 70,000 tons and 27,000 tons respectively.
Transit systems around the country are reducing reliance
on diesel fuel for their bus fleets and investing in compressed natural gas
vehicles, buying low sulfur fuel burning buses or planning a switch to diesel-electric
hybrid buses. Other systems are replacing diesel buses with newer ones to
reduce emissions.
- Reduces Energy Consumption
Americans use more energy for transportation than for any
other activity. Nearly 43 percent of America’s energy resources are used in
transportation. Greater use of public transportation offers the single most
effective strategy currently available for achieving significant energy savings
and improving air quality, without imposing new taxes government mandates
or regulations.
Public transportation can significantly reduce dependency
on gasoline. For every passenger mile traveled, public transportation uses
about one half of the fuel consumed by cars, and about a third of that used
by sport utility vehicles and light trucks.
If Americans used public transportation the same rate as
Europeans, for roughly 10 percent of their daily travel needs, the U.S. would:
- Reduce its dependence on imported oil by more than 40 percent or nearly
the amount of oil we import from Saudi Arabia each year.
- Save more energy every year than all the energy used by the U.S. petrochemical
industry and nearly equal the energy used to produce food in the U.S.
- Reduce CO2 emissions by more than 25 percent of the Kyoto Agreement
mandate.
- Reduce CO pollution by three times the combined levels emitted by the
four highest-polluting industries (chemical manufacturing oil and gas production,
metals processing, and industrial use of coal).
(Conserving Energy and Preserving the Environment: The
Role of Public Transportation," Robert J. Shapiro, Kevin A. Hassett,
and Frank S. Arnold, 2002.)
Public transportation continues to be one of the safest modes
of travel in the U.S. Safe travel is a high priority of public transportation
systems, federal, state and local governments and APTA. According to the National
Safety Council, riding a transit bus is 170 times safer than car travel. By
train, customers are 25 times safer than traveling by car.
- Enhances Mobility During Emergencies
Time and time again, the availability of public transportation,
in emergencies, both natural and man-made, has proven to be critical in maintaining
basic access, mobility and safety for individuals in harm’s way.
Most notably, on September 11, 2001, public transportation
systems in the New York City area moved people safely away from the World
Trade Center disaster. After the attack on the Pentagon, transit systems in
the Washington, D.C. area evacuated hundreds of thousands in an early rush
hour. Nationwide, transit systems evacuated tens of thousands of travelers
from closed airports in major cities. Emergency plans went into effect at
many systems to secure the safety of passengers. Not a single life was lost
among the millions of people traveling on public transportation that day.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, public transportation programs are funded
through a partnership of federal, state and local governments. This partnership
has successfully made public transportation part of our nation’s balanced
transportation system, and put it on a path toward growth and making a positive
difference in our urban, suburban and rural communities. We think our testimony
makes it clear that the private sector is a critical part of this balanced
transportation system as well.
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