[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5403-5404]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                INTRODUCTION OF THE ``END GRIDLOCK ACT''

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 16, 2005

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my 
colleagues Eleanor Holmes Norton and Tom Davis in introducing the ``End 
Gridlock Act.'' This bill is a refinement of a proposal, the 
``Washington Regional Transportation Act'' (H.R. 2882) that I 
introduced last session.
  Unfortunately, this region is not yet prepared to embrace last year's 
proposal and establish a regional transportation authority. Last year's 
bill called for the creation of a regional transportation authority, 
one that could receive a dedicated revenue source, issue bonds and be 
in an ideal position to coordinate land use and transportation funding 
decisions. I regret that the time is not ripe for this a proposal.
  The defeat of the Northern Virginia transportation referendum in 
2002, in my view, moved us away from real progress in solving our 
transportation problems. Unfortunately, poor management of the state's 
transportation programs and false promises by past state officials left 
the public distrustful that any meaningful solutions were possible.
  I'd trade the price of a daily cup of coffee for real investments in 
transit and road improvements, something that would shave 10 minutes 
off my commute. I think a majority of the public share this view, but 
they have been skeptical and fear that the money raised would not be 
spent wisely or spent on projects that have their own built-in 
opposition and controversy.
  The legislation I am introducing today does not to create a regional 
authority, it won't build new roadways. Instead, it focuses on making 
improvements to what already exists. It is a small but important first 
step that I hope builds the foundation for greater regional 
coordination and cooperation and builds public confidence for longer 
term solutions.
  Believe me, we need better coordination and cooperation. We need to 
rebuild confidence. The legislation I am introducing today borrows from 
some of the best, simplest and most cost-effective proposals. Some of 
the ideas were drawn from local transportation and planning experts. 
They are small ticket items, but if they prove successful, maybe the 
consensus will be there to support a more ambitious agenda. The 
Washington Post highlighted some of these potential projects in a 
series featured last year.

[[Page 5404]]

  These investments included building sidewalks and pedestrian and bike 
paths to connect communities to schools, transit centers, Metrorail 
stations and commercial centers. This legislation will provide grants 
to help localities synchronize traffic lights signals on major 
transportation corridors which will reduce travel time and improve 
capacity. The bill provides money to encourage more businesses to offer 
greater telework and telecommuting options. It will provide grants to 
give transit riders real-time information on bus and rail schedules so 
they can time their departures from home and work to arrive at a 
transit stop just when the bus pulls up. It will also fund advance 
technologies to allow buses to slip through interchanges before the 
traffic lights change and on and offload passengers without blocking 
traffic.
  These simple measures can be done for a few million dollars as 
opposed to the tens or hundreds of millions other projects require but 
for lack the funds are not being built and would take years to 
complete. It is said that if you can encourage just 3 percent to 
today's drivers to carpool or take the bus, you can reduce congestion 
by 10 percent.
  In addition to these type of investments, the bill also allows the 
regional governments to fund a transportation incident management 
operations center. The center would be modeled after the New York-New 
Jersey-Connecticut program, known as TRANSCOM, where a full-time staff 
is focused on helping the public get around congestion problems when 
they occur. How many people remember the ``Tractor Man'' episode? There 
were hundreds of law enforcement and emergency response people on the 
scene, but it was hours before anyone there began to try to figure out 
how to move traffic around when all the adjacent streets were closed.
  Similarly, how many times do commuters find road or utility 
construction closing traffic lanes in a haphazard manner. Jurisdictions 
should be working together to coordinate their construction schedule to 
minimize the time a lane along a transportation corridor remains 
closed. A New York-New Jersey TRANSCOM-type program for the National 
Capital Region would be on point for coordinating critical 
transportation information 24/7.
  These are simple solutions, but ones that are not in the interest of 
any one jurisdiction to fund. But, if a federal grant was offered as an 
incentive, the local governments might all be willing to contribute, or 
better yet, compete to pull down the extra federal money. Mr. Chairman, 
this bill is the first step to end this region's gridlock. It gets us 
started and could bring measurable quality of life improvements to this 
region's citizens at a relatively small cost.
  I will be working with my colleagues from this region to try to 
incorporate this proposal into this year's surface transportation 
reauthorization bill.

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