With much excitement, today we are launching the Livable Communities Task Force – an official initiative of the House Democratic Caucus that will work to improve community livability and Americans’ quality of life. This means reducing the nation’s dependence on oil, protecting the environment, improving public health and investing in housing and transportation projects that create jobs and give people more commuting choices.

As Chairman of the Livable Communities Task Force, this is an exciting moment for me. When I first came to Congress thirteen years ago, people sometimes looked at me funny when I used the term “livability.” They had no idea what I was talking about. Today, not only are blogs like yours dedicated to transportation, infrastructure, and livability, but other leaders in Washington are talking about how to make our communities more livable. The Obama Administration is leading on this issue, having recently established the Partnership for Sustainable Communities with six “livability principles” for coordinating policy across the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

What a difference a year makes.

The Task Force is made up of twenty members from around the nation who are leaders on everything from transportation and building efficiency to renewable energy and community gardening. In the coming months, we will work with members of the administration to hold briefings and strategy sessions on everything from the livability provisions in the energy and climate legislation that passed the House to the pending transportation reauthorization.

After spending a lifetime in public service working to make our nation’s communities more livable, it feels like the pieces are coming together. America was ready for change when President Obama came into office. It is exciting that in ten months we are moving legislation that will rein in global warming pollution. With the leadership of Secretary LaHood and Chairman Oberstar, we are gearing up for a transportation bill that will make smart investments in low-carbon transportation, give people more commuting choices, and reduce America’s dependence on oil.

It is an honor to lead this unique Task Force and, and I am eager to work with Congressional leaders and members of the administration who are committed to protecting our environment and making our communities safer, healthier, and more economically secure.

Earl Blumenauer represents Oregon’s 3rd Congressional district.

We’re all smarting from the economic recession that’s hurt our incomes and job prospects, from the decline in housing values that’s dented our wealth, and the collapse in financial markets that’s dealt a big setback to our retirement plans. We’re smarting, but, we tell ourselves, we’re smarter, too.

We’ve learned key lessons. We won’t be fooled by the Bernie Madoffs, or by claims that house prices can only go up, or that some form of complex mortgage-backed security can eliminate financial risk, or that stated-income “liar loans” were ever a good idea. At a high price, we’ve bought ourselves some very valuable lessons.

Next time, we tell ourselves, we’ll be smarter. We’ll ask the hard questions — before we sign on the dotted line. We won’t be conned by overly optimistic estimates or take some self-interested experts’ assurances at face value.

But are we really smarter? I live in the area of Portland, Oregon, and here we face the biggest public investment decision in decades. And it’s a reprise of the oldest con-game in the nation: “Hey, buddy, do you want to buy that bridge?”

In this case, the bridge is the proposed Columbia River Crossing. With an estimated price tag of $4 billion, this proposed five-mile, 12-lane freeway would be the most expensive public works project in the region’s history. The cost works out to more than $8,000 for each four-person household in the region or roughly the equivalent of 80 OHSU trams.

So far, like frenzied homebuyers a few years back, many bridge advocates seem chiefly concerned with superficial questions, such as whether the bridge will be pretty. But before we sign on the dotted line, we–and cities across the country that are considering similar investments–ought to be asking the kind of questions that will keep us from repeating the worst mistakes of those caught up in the housing bubble.

First and foremost, who will pay for this bridge?

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We cannot successfully address the issue of global warming without dealing with transportation, a sector that accounts for nearly one-third of our nation’s carbon emissions. I just finished speaking on the House floor in defense of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) which, after some hard work and negotiating, now includes funding for low carbon transit.

Waxman and Markey have spent countless hours crafting this impressive legislation, which will rein in global warming pollution and create a mechanism to invest in clean, renewable technology. That they included funding for low-carbon transit, like public transportation, complete streets, and bikes, is a nod to the importance of reforming the way we approach our nation’s transportation infrastructure.

As we anticipate next steps with the transportation reauthorization, the funding in ACES will start to spur smart investments that will not only create thousands of jobs at the local level, but will give Americans more commuting choices, improve public health, and reduce our nation’s dependence on oil.

The ACES language on transportation reflects language from a bill I introduced earlier this year called CLEAN-TEA. My legislation called for ten percent of the allocations from a cap on global warming pollution to fund low-carbon transit. ACES falls short of this goal, but it will have a huge impact and is a start in the right direction. The energy and climate bill, which began with absolutely no funding for transit, now includes about $537 million. Eventually this will amount to $1 billion as the allowances become more valuable over time.

I used my time on the House floor to speak about the value of this funding, in hopes that I could draw more attention to an issue that doesn’t receive nearly enough air time. Let this be a prelude to the thoughtful conversation Chairman Oberstar began with his blueprint for the reauthorization.

If we truly want to jumpstart our economy and end our dependence on oil, then we’ll need to continue making smart choices about our nation’s transportation and commuting options. I’ll be voting for ACES in a matter of hours, and I hope this is the first of many steps towards rebuilding and renewing America.

Earl Blumenauer represents Oregon’s 3rd Congressional district.

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In the last few weeks, two states considered “complete streets” laws that would have benefited residents with safer, more livable neighborhoods, and roads designed to include sidewalks and bike lanes and improve traffic flow. In one case, Hawaii, a broad coalition of citizens was able to celebrate the swift passage of a complete streets law that will improve quality of life throughout the state.  In Missouri, though, it was different story, as the measure was killed at the last minute. What made the difference in these two outcomes?

In both cases, advocates did good work in support of the bills. In Hawaii, the One Voice for Livable Islands put a media spotlight on the state’s poor pedestrian safety record, while AARP’s efforts helped put the face of everyone’s grandmother at the center of the issue. Meanwhile, the Missouri Bicycle Federation helped organize testimony in favor of complete streets from a wide range of interests, from the state PTA to the Public Transit Association. The bill sailed through committee.

But according to Missouri Bicycle Federation Executive Director Brent Hugh, one opponent undid all that work: the State DOT.

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This year, we have the rare opportunity to fundamentally reform our country’s broken transportation policy. With Congress soon to begin debate on a new transportation bill, now is the time to embrace a 21st century program. This includes dramatically boosting investment levels, taking a more balanced approach to transportation, and better serving the needs of metropolitan areas (where three quarters of Americans live). If a smart reform agenda is ultimately enacted into law, in coming years transportation investments will drive the nation toward economic recovery, greater energy security and much lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

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In the debate over future transportation policy, the President and Congressional leaders are faced by the need for new revenues and have largely avoided gas taxes, carbon taxes, or other mechanisms that could solve budget problems. One frequently proposed option is infrastructure privatization–for instance, leasing a public highway to private investors and giving them the right to collect tolls in order to turn a profit. Although only a small portion of surface transportation routes offer profit opportunities for the private sector, these “public-private partnerships” are being touted as a major way to deal with transportation budget shortfalls. Toll road privatization lies at the leading edge of this broader debate.

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Accustomed as I am to hearing everyone complain about their economic woes – I do, after all, work in the besieged newspaper industry – it was a pleasant shock to hear from a friend that his bicycle accessory company had its best year ever in 2008.

Yes, it’s true that those expensive carbon-fiber bikes aren’t exactly flying off the shelves these days as the lycra-clad, ectomorphic road warriors decide that maybe they can live with last year’s model.

But it’s a pretty good business to be selling lights, fenders and even bike bells to people who are hauling their old bikes out of storage or bringing home cheap two-wheelers from Goodwill. Now that dozens of cities around the country are starting to see cycling as a serious form of transportation, it’s become more inviting than it used to be to bike to work, the store or the neighborhood pub.

A lot of folks, of course, started picking up the cycling-for-transportation habit a year ago when gas prices shot up to $4 a gallon and keeping your car parked whenever possible took on new cachet.

Filling up with unleaded is not quite so dear now, but since just about everyone is feeling at least a little poorer now, the bike is taking on a new aura of recession chic. In my home city of Portland, Oregon, I just about keep my little flotilla of bikes going on the $20 a week I save in bus fare – and I don’t even consider driving since downtown parking runs at least $150 a month. A lot of my friends and neighbors are figuring out the same thing: some 8 percent of Portlanders now report that the bike is their primary commute vehicle, according to a survey from the city auditor. Bike traffic over the bridges into downtown has nearly doubled since 2003. Portland is at far end of the [bicycle] bell curve, but several other cities, including New York City, are also reporting measurable increases in cycling.

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As the frenzy over the stimulus package has moved from Washington DC to the states, transportation secretaries across the country are pulling highway projects off the shelf–such as a new outer-loop freeway around Houston–that provide only for automobile travel. Unfortunately, decades of this kind of investment has left many Americans living in places where people can’t walk anywhere because sidewalks and safe street crossings are non-existent, where they can’t ride a bicycle because the roads aren’t intended to accommodate that form of travel, and where they can’t take the bus or train because public transportation is inaccessible.

San Diego’s La Jolla Boulevard as it used to look is a pretty good example of this kind of planning:

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Last year, the US made more progress in reducing traffic congestion than any other time in memory. New data show that in the nation’s cities congestion declined by 30 percent overall and was improved at every hour of the day.

How did we make these big gains? Not by adding more highway lanes or transit. Our physical infrastructure barely changed. Rather, we did it with a very modest decline in car travel. On urban interstate highways, total vehicle miles traveled in the US declined by about 3 percent compared with 2007.

The dramatic decline in congestion — which analysts have labeled “startling” – was almost universal. It actually fell in 99 of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, according to Inrix, which monitors traffic around the nation. The company’s data come from tens of billions of reports from GPS-equipped vehicles traveling the nation’s roads, the same data that provides real-time traffic information to commercial users and web-services like Mapquest, Garmin and On-Star.

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Deron Lovaas is the National Transportation Policy Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Robert Puentes is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, where he focuses on issues related to metropolitan growth and development.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s suggestion last week that the nation consider adopting fees based on mileage driven (sometimes referred to as vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, fees) was brushed aside too quickly. While substantive issues remain, there is no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water.

This worthy idea is part of the long term future of transportation finance in this country. It would use satellite tracking devices to record how far and when motorists drive and would assess a fee based on those travel habits. Benefits include better allocation of revenues (based on the roads used), better allocation of costs (vehicles damaging to infrastructure such as heavy trucks could be assessed at a greater fee), and better allocation of resources (higher fees could be charged based on time of day and congestion levels).

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America has had more than its share of delusions about energy. The latest concerns the “smart grid” – that this bright new technological miracle will help us overcome reality.

Al Gore, Thomas Friedman, Amory Lovins and Silicon Valley are the predictable originators of this story, but corporate America has quickly jumped into the game. General Electric is now running an ad that suggests how “the smart grid” will help us transcend the difficult – but reality-based – choice of whether to power our country with coal or nuclear.

Here’s how the ad goes. A flaxen-haired girl of about ten is standing in front of a clothes dryer, “It says to wait until 10 p.m.,” she declares. Then she is in front of a wall outlet: “It only takes what it needs.” Then she is standing in front of a distribution box: “It talks to the others.” Finally she is in front of a window: “It brings power from far away.”

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As the economic recovery package continues to take shape, several Senators are offering amendments that seem unable to gain the needed momentum to bring them to a vote. Among them are two amendments filed by Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) that would increase highway funding and cut rail funding. There is also an amendment being considered by Senators Boxer (D-CA) and Inhofe (R-OK) that would create a $50 billion highway-transit-water fund (clearly more and more highway spending isn’t change we can believe in).
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A few days ago, we had the chance to talk transportation policy with Federico Peña, who served both as Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Energy under Bill Clinton. Over the course of the conversation, Peña offered up a roster of smart and innovative thoughts on how we might maximize our national investment in infrastructure. We liked them and decided to pull them together as an ideas memo. Here, in his own words, is a plan from a man who was in charge of national transportation policy last time a Democrat was in office :

Over the last twenty years, we’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure and seen no improvements. We still have 40,000 people dying each year on our roads. Traffic congestion is only getting worse. We’ve tried the path of building new infrastructure to relieve delays but have learned that whatever we build quickly gets overwhelmed with new traffic. So we have to do something different. Here are some ideas to consider:

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