The Metropolitan Civic Leadership Alliance, a coalition of nine business-led civic organizations representing major cities, sent letters yesterday to members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works outlining eight priorities for the next surface transportation legislation.
“Consistent, predictable investment in urban transportation is essential to economic growth,” Kathy Hollinger, CEO of the Greater Washington Partnership, said in an emailed statement to Smart Cities Dive.
The Alliance said their communities “benefitted greatly” from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and “have a vested interest in continuing to participate in reauthorization discussions.”
These are the coalition’s priorities:
- Leverage transportation investment to spur economic growth by funding multimodal transportation projects, including roads, bridges, and transit and rail fleets.
- Reduce regulatory delays and costs due to time-consuming permitting and approval processes.
- Improve intercity and commuter rail with ongoing federal support. Key projects include the Hudson Tunnel project along the Northeast Corridor, Washington Union Station expansion and Caltrain’s downtown San Francisco extension, along with continued funding for the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grant program.
- Maintain safe, high-performing public transit systems through the federal Capital Investment Grants program and by empowering cities and metropolitan regions to develop locally informed responses to specific urban mobility challenges.
- Develop innovative programs to address growing urban congestion, such as HOV lanes, tolling, transit, passenger rail and multi-use trail networks.
- Promote transit-oriented development by reducing red tape for financing and project deployment and tapping into federal programs to unlock private investment.
- Invest in urban multimodal freight networks, including rail, port, water, bridge, road, highway, and aviation infrastructure critical to 21st-century trade.
- Continue to strengthen support for major aviation hubs by expanding access to the federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program.
The Alliance members include the San Francisco Bay Area Council, Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, Dallas Regional Chamber, Greater Houston Partnership, Greater Washington (D.C.) Partnership, Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, Metro Atlanta Chamber, Partnership for New York City and Partnership for Rhode Island.
“Congress must empower metropolitan areas like ours to provide both the freedom and motivation to innovate, grow, and make the most of every federal dollar,” Derek Douglas, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, said in an emailed statement.
