More on Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood's admission that he wants to coerce people out of their cars. The most powerful weapon in the arsenal of the Partnership for Sustainable Development is the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant. $1.5 billion was allotted in the stimulus for these grants, which are supposed to be awarded "on a competitive basis for capital investments in surface transportation projects that will have a significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area or a region."
In reality, the grants were used to pump money into so-called "green" transportation projects, particularly those that emphasized bicycling and public transportation. Within hours of the data being released, the Sierra Club was crowing about how walking and cycling were "big winners" on their website.
We took a closer look at the more than 50 TIGER grants that were awarded by LaHood's Department of Transportation. Of these, three funded projects exclusively focused on cycling and walking, including a $23 million bike path through Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. A further 14 of these grants went to projects that encouraged multiple forms of transportation. Most of these were so-called "multimodal" initiatives, which were usually projects that did some fixing up of existing roads while retrofitting or connecting them with bike paths and rail lines. The DOT says these projects were intended to "encourage transportation options" -- in other words, get people out of their cars and onto a train, bus, or path. Rail service cleaned up under TIGER with 11 new grants. Six more went to ports and five to buses. The remaining 12 were spent on highways and roads.
Some of the funding went to green bugaboos that had little to do with transportation. One $14 million grant went to make Maine's ports more environmentally-friendly. Another $22.3 million went to a business park in Rhode Island that is home to several wind power companies.
Of the TIGER grants, which were supposed to be awarded on the basis of effectiveness, less than a quarter went to road and highway projects. This is despite the fact that 91% of commuters drive to work in their cars. This is the future of transportation according to Obama: railroads, bicycles, and running shoes. LaHood's Department of Transportation has been kicking money to other forms of transportation at the expense of the good old-fashioned American car.
No comments:
Post a Comment