How the Transportation Bill Failed America
Dr. Judith Rodin, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, examines the transportation bill that Congress passed on June 29, 2012.
Excerpt
Whether you drive to work every morning, hop on a subway or bus, or just pull the bike out for a ride around town, you need to pay attention to the transportation bill that Congress finally passed this week. The bill is a significant step backward and falls woefully short of creating a balanced system that serves all Americans and invests adequately in options and our growing metros.
Why does the bill matter? Because transportation is the second highest cost in American households (and the highest if you are a low-wage worker). Traffic costs Americans an estimated 4.2 billion hours and $87 billion in productivity each year. One of every nine of our highway bridges are currently deemed "structurally deficient." The multi-billion dollar surface transportation bill that Congress just passed is what pays for your road improvements, your state-of-the-art bus rapid transit, and it should create or save hundreds of thousands of jobs.