Core News Facts

• U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, introduced a bill on Monday, June 22, 2009, that would reauthorize federal surface transportation funding for roads, bridges, and passenger and freight rail to the tune of $450 billion.
• The current allocation expires at the end of September 2009.
• Authorization of a new transportation bill occurs only once every six years. This bill, and the billions of dollars it will allocate, has the potential to redefine how the American people get around for generations, just as the highway system envisioned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower more than 60 years ago still defines us today.
• Rep. Oberstar estimates the bill would cost approximately $450 billion, but the federal Highway Trust Fund is headed toward bankruptcy for the second time in as many years. Most experts believe it will run out of cash by mid-August.
• The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to begin exploring how to finance this bill in July.
• Illinois members of Congress – U.S. Reps. Jerry Costello (D-12th Dist.), Timothy V. Johnson (R-15th Dist.), and Dan Lipinski (D-3rd Dist.) – will play a critical role in these negotiations because of their positions as members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Positive Features of the Bill

• Money Dedicated to Repairing Aging Roads and Bridges. Creates a substantial, dedicated funding stream for maintaining roads and bridges – the Critical Asset Investment Program – and would require transit agencies to show how they are maintaining their systems in a state of good repair.
• Simpler, More Streamlined Programs. Consolidates the current 108 programs, eliminating or combining 75 of them.
• Greater Local Control. More money to the metropolitan areas that have the thorniest transportation problems.
• A Stronger Rural Voice. Rural areas get a bigger say in state-level transportation decision-making.
• Transit New Starts Program. Eliminates the “cost effectiveness” index that makes reduced travel time the overriding criterion, streamlines project delivery.
• Promotes Intermodal Planning. Gives substantial responsibility to a new Office of Intermodalism, which would integrate investments in multiple modes (promoting, for instance, simultaneous investment in a bus rapid transit route along a repaired highway.)

Unclear/Needs Improvement

• Livability and Public Health. The bill has strong overarching language on livable communities and health: Building neighborhoods where people have access to affordable living and travel options – you can walk, drive or take transit, you can find homes you can afford near transit stops and job centers.
  • However livability can’t just be an office in the federal government; it needs to be part of how localities qualify for money. The Office itself needs more money and authority
  • Health needs to be elevated as a goal, performance measure and criterion throughout the legislation
• Public Transportation. The increase from 18 to 22 percent of the total share of funding is moving in the right direction, but there is a potential that the 22 percent is a ceiling rather than a floor.
  • There are several flexible pots of funding in the 78% of the non-transit funds, but they don’t have the proper direction and performance criteria to ensure they will be truly multimodal.
  • It’s very positive that there is some flexibility to use dollars for operating expenses (the money to help run buses and trains and provide more frequent service) but the flexibility could be broadened as proposed under HR2746.
• Metro Mobility and Access program is a very positive step that supplies more financial resources to metropolitan planning agencies to tackle critical transportation issues. While tackling congestion is important, there needs to be an equal emphasis on smarter approaches to managing travel demand including system operations and efficiency and transit-oriented development and better planning for linking where people live and access to the jobs and other destinations they need to travel to.
• Clean Transportation and a Connection to Climate Change. Bill language gives a nod to having transportation do its part on climate protection, but there are no real teeth or accountability provisions.
• Access for Vulnerable Populations. Programs for low-income, disabled and aging Americans are consolidated within the broader public transportation programs, but it’s unclear yet how high a priority these programs will be and how they will effectively coordinated.

Critical Missing Elements

• Goals, Performance Targets and Accountability. Having individual programs that work better is certainly a step in the right direction, but having programs that work together toward achieving a set of national objectives – as outlined in HR2724 – is critical if we are going to be successful in moving to a truly integrated, intermodal national transportation system.(Illinois transportation advocates are pushing for the state to enact a similar approach to transportation investment by developing selection criteria based on statewide goals.)
• Green Freight and Ports. The requirement of a freight plan inclusive of truck, rail, ports, etc., is positive. However, the actual funding appears to be aimed only at expanding highway capacity and there is no provision for cleaning up the nation’s trucks, trains and ports.
• Smarter Land Use/Stronger Communities. Other than a few mentions of land use, the bill draft contains nothing substantive to provide incentives to coordinate land use, affordable housing and community development with transportation so people have more options to live closer to jobs.
• Equity/Affordability. Overall of the four ‘E’s – economy, environment, energy and equity – equity seems to get the least attention in the bill as drafted. There could be stronger overarching objectives and project level criteria to ensure benefits for low-income communities. The concept of household cost and overall affordability of transportation also gets no mention in the draft bill – transportation is now the second highest household cost for families and the poor spend an exorbitant amount on getting from point A to point B. At the very least this should be an overarching performance objective as suggested in HR2724.
• Blueprint Planning. While the concept paper released June 18 outlined a bold “blueprint planning” provision that would require visionary, scenario-based planning that integrates transportation, housing, land use patterns and builds in specific performance targets, the bill draft falls short of making this promise a reality.
• Workforce Development. There is a placeholder in the draft for a workforce development, but no language yet to address the need to get low-income, women and minority workers into job training and career pathways into the transportation industry.

Sources

James Corless, Director, Transportation for America
“Chairman Oberstar and his committee members have done us all a great service in launching the discussion of updating our nation’s transportation program for the 21st Century. This year’s bill represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to set America on a new course and it is essential that we get it right.” James.corless@t4america.org

Brian Imus, State Director, Illinois PIRG
“The decisions made by Congress will have a huge impact on the future of public transportation in Illinois. There are expansion projects like the Red Line extension in Chicago and high-speed intercity rail linking Illinois and Midwest cities that will help address our dependence on oil and curb congestion in our cities. Fixing problems like these that commuters face everyday will only happen with a meaningful change in the way lawmakers in Washington, D.C., spend our transportation dollars.” brian@illinoispirg.org, 312-291-0441, ext. 210

Kevin Brubaker, Deputy Director, Environmental Law & Policy Center
“This bill proposes to provide 80 percent of the cost of high-speed rail investments, for the first time putting rail on an equal footing with highways. That’s good news for jobs, transportation, and the environment.” kbrubaker@elpc.org, (312) 673-6500

Jacky Grimshaw, Vice President for Policy, Center for Neighborhood Technology
“For working families, those households earning $20,000 to $50,000 annually, transportation costs can equal or exceed housing costs. This limits their ability to find truly affordable housing in all parts of the region because transportation options are not universally available. The lack of transportation options disproportionately burdens the poor and moderate income families.” jacky@cnt.org, 773-269-4033

Peter Skosey, Vice President, Metropolitan Planning Council
“Momentum is building to revamp outdated policies and entrenched structures that have led to federal mis-investment in communities across metropolitan Chicago and the nation. Rep. Oberstar’s bill is a sign that federal investment policy is moving away from investing in silos via arbitrary funding formulas toward supporting infrastructure that increases the capacity of our entire transportation system, while achieving interconnected goals such as reducing emissions, sparking new economic development opportunities, and connecting jobs, homes and transit.” pskosey@metroplanning.org, 312-863-6004

Additional Local and National Resources

• Transportation for America’s official statement on Rep. Oberstar’s bill
• Transportation advocates in Illinois support not only federal investment reforms, but also state investment reforms. The state needs to develop investment criteria based on statewide goals, such as reducing traffic congestion, creating jobs, and providing people with more transportation options. Learn more at MPC’s Web site.

Information on the cost of mis-investment in Illinois transportation infrastructure:

• Getting on Track: Key Public Transportation Projects, Illinois PIRG reports on the value of public transportation in Illinois.
• Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing + Transportation Affordability Index: CNT illustrates that truly affordable communities need homes at a range of price points, as well as reliable, accessible transportation options. Their user-customizable maps also show that communities with greater density produce lower CO2 emissions.
• Moving at the Speed of Congestion: Metropolitan Planning Council reports that excess traffic congestion costs Chicago-area businesses, individuals and the environment $7.3 billion annually.
• Benefits of high-speed rail: Environmental Law & Policy Center’s Web site features a webinar briefing on new developments and funding affecting the Midwest High-Speed Rail Network, and includes details on the benefits of high-speed rail.
• Transit State of Good Repair: The Federal Transit Administration assesses the condition of the nation’s transit infrastructure, and begins to outline the steps necessary to bring it to a state of good repair. Chicago is among seven of the nation’s largest transit systems that are underfunded, confirming the Regional Transportation Authority’s concerns.

Today, Illinois and national transportation experts, including CNT’s Vice President for Policy, Jacky Grimshaw hosted a media telebriefing to discuss how the bill would affect Illinois and regional planning, and what specific reforms local advocates are pushing for to ensure Illinois and metropolitan Chicago have the transportation options necessary to remain economically competitive, environmentally sustainable, and socially equitable.

“Chairman Oberstar and his committee members have done us all a great service in launching the discussion of updating our nation’s transportation program for the 21st century,” said James Corless, T4 America’s Director. “This year’s bill represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to set America on a new course and it is essential that we get it right.”

Rep. Oberstar’s bill is a good start toward federal transportation investment reform but needs more work. The positive features of the bill include: money dedicated to repairing aging roads and bridges, streamlined programs, greater local control for metropolitan areas, a stronger rural voice, transit new starts program, and intermodal planning.

The experts voiced their concerns about portions of the bill that were unclear or needed improvement. The advocates applauded the strong overarching language on livable communities and health but felt that livability can’t just be an office in the federal government—it needs to be part of how localities qualify for money. The Office itself needs more money and authority. Health needs to be elevated as a goal, performance measure and criterion throughout the legislation. While the bill increased the percent of total share of funding for public transportation to 22 percent, there is concerned that the increase would be a ceiling rather than a floor. The advocates would like to broaden the flexibility to use dollars for operating expenses. The metro mobility and access program is a very positive step that supplies more financial resources to metropolitan planning agencies to tackle critical transportation issues. The advocates stated that there needs to be an equal emphasis on smarter approaches to managing travel demand including system operations and efficiency and transit-oriented development and better planning for linking where people live and access to the jobs and other destinations they need to travel to. The bill language gives a nod to having transportation do its part on climate protection, but there are no real teeth or accountability provisions. Programs for low-income, disabled and aging Americans are consolidated within the broader public transportation programs, but it’s unclear yet how high a priority these programs will be and how they will effectively coordinated.

At today’s media briefing, the transportation experts expressed their concerns about the critical missing elements in the bill which included 1) goals, performance targets and accountability 2) cleaning up freight and ports, 3) smarter land use and stronger communities 4) equity/affordability, 5) blueprint planning and 6) workforce development.

CNT’s Vice president for Policy, Jacky Grimshaw, expressed the need to have a transportation bill that recognizes that “for working families, those households earning $20,000 to $50,000 annually, transportation costs can equal or exceed housing costs. This limits their ability to find truly affordable housing in all parts of the region because transportation options are not universally available. The lack of transportation options disproportionately burdens the poor and moderate income families. The bill could have stronger overarching objectives and project level criteria to ensure benefits for low-income communities.”

Others speaking on the telebriefing were Kevin Brubaker, Deputy Director, of Environmental Law & Policy Center; Brian Imus, State Director for Illinois PIRG, and Peter Skosey, Vice President of Metropolitan Planning Council.

Read the full Media Release here.

Read Transportation for America’s official statement on Rep. Oberstar’s bill and stay up-to-date on the activity.

The guide introduces the energy efficiency and conservation strategy, gives a model outline, a process guide, execution options, and where to go for resources and help for communities receiving funding under “The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant” (EECBG) program, which was passed as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Within 120 days after receiving initial funding, eligible communities must submit a proposed Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy that describes the energy goals and proposed plan for the use of the EECBG grant.

Chicago’s Guide will help cities and counties to thoughtfully plan for long-term and sustainable energy efficiency and conservation and maximize the opportunity EECBG planning dollars represent. The requirement to develop a plan is also a great opportunity. A strong strategy can provide not only a roadmap for reducing energy use, but also for lowering government, business, and resident energy costs, and promoting economic development and job creation.

Chicago has undertaken this kind of planning and this Guide builds on the lessons of the Chicago experience. The very inclusive Chicago process took more than a year to complete, but the time dedicated to systematic assessment and broad engagement had a high payoff. Taking advantage of the work that Chicago did and the reports posted on Chicago’s climate action website is one way to expedite the energy efficiency and conservation planning process.

The report can be downloaded at CNT’s site or at Chicago’s Climate Action website.

(Chicago,IL). On Friday, June 5, 2009, 6th and 7th grade students from Thomas Chalmers Specialty School in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood will join volunteers from Baxter International, Inc. and the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) staff to plant a rain garden where, up until last week, a slab of asphalt once smothered the ground. CNT and Baxter have partnered to create an 1800-square foot rain garden, which the students will help plant with 500 native plants like Blue Wild Indigo, Black-Eyed Susan and Wild Strawberries. (Event details below).

The rain garden at Chalmers School is a part of the Forward Chicago program, launched to foster greening activities in neighborhoods surrounding the city’s proposed Olympics and Paralympics venues. Chalmers School sits in the West Side Chicago neighborhood of North Lawndale, across from Douglas Park, a proposed cycling venue for the 2016 Olympics.

“These projects will create lasting, real environmental benefits in neighborhoods near to proposed Olympic sites,” said Kathryn Tholin, CNT’s CEO. “We are pleased to be partnering with Baxter and Chalmers School to increase neighborhood open space and contribute to a healthy environment for students and the community.”

In addition to its location in a designated 21st Century Green Center of Chicago’s Olympic bid, Chicago Public Schools had reported that Chalmers’ parking lot and playground were plagued with drainage problems. This rain garden, like a recent CNT project at St. Margaret Mary Church, will improve drainage at the school by replacing impervious asphalt with a native plant rain garden that will help to absorb and filter stormwater runoff.

“This garden demonstrates the tremendous opportunity to capture rain drops where they fall, expanding the City’s and Chicago Public Schools’ commitment to utilizing green infrastructure both for stormwater management and its community and educational benefits”, said Steve Wise, CNT’s Natural Resources Program Director. “Schools around Chicago are unpaving the way to a healthier city. Re-establishing natural planted areas creates a learning landscape for students and, by keeping rain water flowing into the ground on site, takes pressure off of the sewer network to help prevent local flooding and combined sewer overflows.”

The Chalmers School rain garden is the most recent in a series of school-based green infrastructure projects for CNT, initiating projects that re-open urban spaces by removing concrete to restoring functioning landscapes and clean water in the city, the region and beyond. See pictures from the recent removal of the asphalt at CNT’s Flickr page.

The Prince Charitable Trusts also provided funding support for this project.

Event Details

Where: Thomas Chalmers Specialty School

2745 W. Roosevelt Rd.
Chicago, IL 60608

When: Planting will take place 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM and 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

About Forward Chicago

Launched by The Climate Group to engage Chicago’s leading businesses in public-private partnerships to implement selected climate initiatives. Participating companies work with Forward Chicago partners to sponsor initiatives within the newly-designated 21st Century Green Centers, the areas immediately surrounding the city’s proposed Olympic and Paralympic venues. These activities will help mitigate climate change while providing residents and businesses with tangible adaptation measures. Moving forward, the Green Centers will serve as hubs for low-carbon economic growth and neighborhood development.

About CNT

Since 1978, CNT has been a leader in promoting urban sustainability – the more effective use of existing resources and community assets to improve the health of natural systems and the wealth of people, today and in the future. CNT’s Natural Resources program focuses on Green Infrastructure; a stormwater management approach that saves money, supports sustainability, and more efficiently uses limited financial and natural resources. By capturing raindrops where they fall, Green Infrastructure utilizes the absorbing and filtering abilities of plants, trees and soil to protect water quality, reduce polluted runoff, and recharge groundwater supplies while reconnecting people with their local environment. CNT is one of eight nonprofits selected from around the world to receive a 2009 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

More information at www.cnt.org/natural-resources

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The Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act requires the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) to report to the Legislature and Governor’s Office on stormwater management techniques that capture raindrops where they fall. Green infrastructure preserves and enhances natural drainage systems which reduce the amount of stormwater that must be collected in pipes and treated or discharged to our surface waters. These sustainable stormwater practices increase infiltration of rain water into the ground, reducing pollution and sewer overflows, and helping recharge declining groundwater aquifers. Several states and major cities around the country have taken the lead in supplementing their conventional stormwater systems with green infrastructure best management practices, recognizing that green infrastructure can save money and enhance community health and vitality.

CNT identified the problem and proposed solutions to members of the General Assembly. The Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act was the result. The lead sponsors were Senator Iris Martinez and Representative Elaine Nekritz. Co-sponsors included Senators Susan Garrett, Jacqueline Collins, Ira Silverstein, Pamela Althoff, and Martin Sandoval and Representatives Jehan Gordon, Deborah Mell, Sara Feigenholtz, Elizabeth Coulson, Sandra Pihos, Rosemary Mulligan, Naomi Jakobsson, and Mike Fortner. The IEPA also supported the action and has begun to plan its study, even before the bill reaches the Governor’s desk for his anticipated signature. CNT will be working with the State, municipalities, regional agencies, and the research community on this effort to bring the benefits of green infrastructure to all urban and urbanizing areas in Illinois. Interested parties can help by providing information to the Agency on the benefits and costs involved in using green infrastructure practices.

For information on how to become involved in this effort, please contact Hal Sprague, CNT Senior Policy Associate, at 773-269-4046, or hal at cnt.org.

On June 30, 2009, Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill into law, as Public Act 96-0026.

[Chicago, IL] At first glance, cities may appear to be a big source of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. But new research by the nonprofit Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), which compares greenhouse gas emissions of city and suburban households, yields some surprising results.

CNT looked at emissions of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, stemming from household vehicle travel in 55 metropolitan areas across the U.S. When measured on a per household basis, it found that the transportation-related emissions of people living in cities and compact neighborhoods can be nearly 70% less than those living in suburbs. See how this compares in your region.

“Cities are more location-efficient – meaning key destinations are closer to where people live and work,” said Scott Bernstein, CNT’s President. “They require less time, money, fuel and greenhouse gas emissions for residents to meet their everyday travel needs. People can walk, bike, car-share, take public transit. So residents of cities and compact communities generate less CO₂ per household than people who live in more dispersed communities, like many suburbs and outlying areas.

“If you’re deciding where to live, consider moving to an urban area. You’ll help fight global warming by emitting less CO₂. And you’re likely to drive less, so you’ll spend less on transportation, saving up to $5,000 annually.”

CNT’s research shows that average transportation costs vary greatly depending on location, from a low of 14% of area household median income in transit-rich, compact communities, to highs of 28% or more in exurban areas where employment, retail, and other amenities are more dispersed.

CNT focused on vehicle travel as a source of emissions, since research shows that transportation accounts for 28% of all greenhouse gases in the U.S.¹ Its work compares the conventional per-acre analysis of greenhouse gas emissions due to vehicle travel with a new per-household view in each metropolitan area it studied. The results suggest that, due to their density and transportation alternatives, cities are a central part of the climate change solution.

The research is an outgrowth of CNT’s Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, which examines several aspects of location efficiency. One is the true cost of housing when household transportation costs are factored in, which vary widely by location. Together, transportation and housing can account for more than 60% of annual household expenses for some working families living in outlying areas – significantly impacting their cost of living and quality of life. The site also illuminates the environmental cost of housing location, which includes impacts like household carbon dioxide emissions.

Since its launch a year ago, the H+T^TM Affordability Index has been expanded to show current CO₂ maps, as well as the impact of location and gasoline costs on household budgets between the years 2000 and 2008. It has also been redesigned and enhanced for ease of use and data access.

Founded in 1978, CNT (www.cnt.org) is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that works nationally to advance urban sustainability by researching, inventing and testing strategies that use resources more efficiently and equitably. Its programs focus on climate, energy, natural resources, transportation, and community development. CNT is one of eight nonprofits selected from around the world to be recognized by a 2009 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

¹2007 data per the U.S. EPA National Greenhouse Gas Inventory

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CNT looked at emissions of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, stemming from household vehicle travel in 55 metropolitan areas across the U.S. When measured on a per household basis, it found that the transportation-related emissions of people living in cities and compact neighborhoods can be nearly 70% less than those living in suburbs. See how this compares in your region at our newly redesigned Housing + Transportation Affordability Index site.

Read the full Press Release or try out the new site.

The so-called “Super Barrel” refers to a 330-gallon bulk liquid container cube - much larger than the typical rain barrel. Where a 50-gallon rain barrel can only capture about a one-tenth of the rainwater running off a 1500 square foot roof, the Super Barrel captures approximately one third of the water. The collection of storm water takes pressure off of the sewers and stores the water for later use in gardening (or in the future, even toilet-flushing).

The Green Affordable Housing project is piloting the use of green infrastructure for stormwater management in multi-family housing units throughout Cook County. And green infrastructure does not just mean Super Barrels; in Oak Park, CNT is collaborating with the Oak Park Residence Corporation to install Super Barrels, create bioswales in multi-unit housing parking lots, and establish rain gardens at a number of different sites. And in the Chicago neighborhood of Austin on the west side, CNT is working to create a rain garden or use Super Barrels at one of the community gardens.

(Rollover the picture to see the Super Barrel with and without its covering)