Spring 2007 | Vol. 10 | No. 1
State Transportation Officials Make Federal Safety Recommendations
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) on March 19 released "Transportation-Invest in Our Future: Surface Transportation Policy Recommendations," the second in a series of six reports designed to aid the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, a group Congressionally mandated to work "to preserve and enhance the surface transportation system to meet the needs of the United States for the 21st century."
Regarding the issue of highway safety, the report advises the creation of a presidential commission charged with developing a National Strategic Highway Safety Plan. It calls for an increase in federal safety funding and the streamlining of federal safety grant programs' application processes. AASHTO also recommends the development of model statutes based on proven strategies to drive down highway fatalities. The report also calls for the ambitious reduction of highway fatalities by 10,000 each decade.
Other policy proposals in the
report include: options for increasing
Highway Trust Fund revenues,
including a gas tax increase; steps
to double transit ridership within
20 years; the addition of capacity
to the Interstate Highway System;
and an increase in non-Interstate
highway system funding for the
National Highway System's "core
programs."
The report is available on AASHTO's website at http://downloads.transportation.org/tif2-1.pdf.