Memo to the States (and President Obama): It Ain’t Just Highway Money

Obama visited the Department of Transportation today and offered some inspiring words about the infrastructure investments in the recovery bill that he just signed into law. Unfortunately, he erred in terming the largest single category of funding in those provisions — $27.5 billion of Surface Transportation Program (STP) monies — “highway” spending. And the recovery.gov web site includes the same mistake in its description, calling this money “highway infrastructure funds.”

This is not just highway money and we shouldn’t refer to it as such. Congress wisely used STP as the vehicle for this investment, knowing that this is a highly flexible way to funnel money into infrastructure. Why? Because there are fifteen eligible uses for the funding. Yes, highways are among them, but so are:

• Transit projects
• Bicycle and pedestrian projects
• Truck stop electrification (which saves oil and reduces pollution, while generating jobs)
• Intelligent Transportation Systems technology (tolling facilities, real-time information signs for highways and transit and other uses that make the system function more efficiently, and generate jobs to boot)
• Environmental clean-up projects
• And several other project types

In fact, this wasn’t enough flexibility for Congress, which explicitly added another important eligible use (something the President should applaud and encourage, given his commitment to high-speed rail): “passenger and freight rail transportation and port infrastructure projects.”

As states hustle to spend this money, they should do so carefully, and take advantage of the flexibility allowed by STP. This means keeping an eye to the oil savings and pollution reduction potential of uses besides new highway construction. For example, a scuffle has already erupted in Texas as the transportation department scrambles to spend the money, plowing about 70 percent of it into toll roads.

The lesson? Government officials should speak in more balanced terms that include public transportation and other more energy-efficient uses along with highway spending. Because if they speak that way, they’re also more likely to think and act that way.

Deron Lovaas is the National Transportation Policy Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.