Engineering Inc. - January/February 2010 - 11

RAYMOND: Oregon has done a study on the Vehicle Miles Traveled system (VMT). Do you think it is part of the long-term solution for stable transportation financing? An environmental advocate, Rep. Blumenauer practices what he preaches, riding his bike to work on Capitol Hill. JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2010 ENGINEERING INC. matthew CavanauGh/aP Photo resulting in even more delay. I’ve already said—and our leadership agrees—that we’re not going to propose anything that is going to burden motorists, especially when unemployment is 10 percent and going up. But that doesn’t mean we can’t put in place funding mechanisms that would kick in as the economy grows, or deal with other funding sources. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been clear that the next financial stimulus should be a robust reauthorization of the surface transportation act. Chairman James Oberstar doesn’t want to wait 18 more months; he’s been working 40 years for this moment. There are glimmers that we will not continue this game, but do a short-term extension through spring. That’s enough time to get this right. Once we decide to go forward, it’s only going to take six to eight weeks to hammer out the details. There already has been unprecedented involvement from the broad range of interests that care about reauthorization. You folks have monitored commissions, you’ve got policy papers and you’ve got people that have been involved all over the country. On one level, it is rocket science; we need a truly transformative piece of legislation. We all know it’s due. But I’ve spent enough time in politics to know that Congress is going to spend only a finite amount of time on it anyway; I truly believe that it will take only six to eight weeks when it really gets down to crunch time. The question is, are we going to spend those six to eight weeks of effort between now and the first of February, or the first of March? Or will it be in the next Congress? We cannot afford to let this become another partisan hotshot game. I was stunned that the bill’s extension turned into a partisan vote. All of us, including the engineering community, must make sure that this is a bipartisan process. You folks have been terrific, but if reauthorization turns into partisan games, we won’t get a bill, and America will suffer. BLUMENAUER: Ninety years ago, Oregon gave America its first dedicated gas tax for road construction. My hope is that Oregon’s pioneering VMT pilot project will now help eliminate the gas tax because we’re caught in a downward spiral. Between increases in fuel efficiency and inflation, the average motorist now pays about half of what he or she paid per mile in 1993. New technologies—hybrid vehicles, as well as cars fueled entirely by electricity or compressed natural gas—accelerate the downward spiral of declining gas tax revenues. As a result, we have completely disconnected the cost responsibility of wear and tear on the roads. Yet we haven’t raised the gas tax since 1993. Sadly, the increased politicizing of this issue makes it all the harder to address; it’s only going to get worse. Oregon’s successful VMT experiment shows how technology can be used to administer a program that ensures longterm and stable road funds. But there’s an additional benefit: According to the research, once people realize they are paying by the mile instead of by the tank, they actually change their driving behavior, voluntarily reducing their vehicle miles traveled by an average of 11 percent. When people start to keep track of their mileage, they begin to link their trips together. This change in behavior actually can help us coax more capacity out of our infrastructure, as we rediscover cost responsibility. PSOMAS: ACEC Member Firms represent half a million employees throughout the nation. We have a huge grassroots effort that is very active in supporting policymakers who share our concerns. How can we best help you advance your infrastructure agenda? BLUMENAUER: I have seen a tremendous revolution over the last 10 years within the engineering community: Engineering companies and individuals have become increasingly sophisticated, playing increasingly critical roles both in terms of innovation and crafting solutions. Organizations such as ACEC are making significant contributions to public policy discussions, as well as the political debate. The most important thing ACEC can do to help me move this agenda forward is to keep on doing what you are doing. n Gary Landsman

Engineering Inc. - January/February 2010

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