Transportation upgrades vital to SGV

Pasadena Star News

By: Cynthia Kurtz

Posted: 4/03/2014 

Recently I joined the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce on a trip to Washington, D.C. to talk to legislators about managing California’s drought. We received a good reception. Water is a bi-partisan issue. Inside the “Washington bubble” we found that support for programs that provide water crosses party lines. However, what those programs should contain can take very different paths. 

Last week I wrote about water issues that were prominent on the agenda during a recent trip to Washington D.C. That same D.C. visit included meetings with elected officials about transportation. Representatives from the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership were in good company. We joined an entourage from the Board of Directors and the staffs of the Alameda Corridor East (ACE) and Foothill Gold Line Lightrail Construction Authorities as well as the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments. 

It is a particularly important time to be discussing transportation. Federal officials are working on the reauthorization of the current legislation - “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century” or MAP-21 - which sets transportation policy for the nation.

The federal government began establishing policies and programs focused on the quality and safety of the nation’s surface transportation system - highways, transit, rail, bikes and pedestrians - in the early 1990's. The last bill was adopted July 6, 2012 and expires on September 30, 2014.

There are two particularly critical issues for the SGV that are dominating this reauthorization discussion. First, the traditional way of paying for transportation, the gas tax, is just not working anymore. Steve Scauzillo's excellent article, which ran in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune newspapers on March 27, 2014, explains why the gas tax is continuing to decline as our dependence on gasoline declines. 

The gas tax can no longer pay for the required repairs of bridges, highways and related transportation infrastructure. The Highway Trust Fund could be bankrupt as soon as July, 2014. Some federal officials are leaning towards user’s fees - you pay based on the miles you travel not your fuel type - as a substitute but such a change comes with its own set of issues that need to be resolved.

Second, how should the federal government expand the polices and funding that have traditionally been focused on how to move people to also include the movement of goods? The movement of goods is especially significant for the SGV. Forty-three percent of the materials that come into the U.S. come through the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles for distribution  to the rest of the country by truck and rail - creating as many as 50 trains a day traveling though the San Gabriel Valley. That number is expected to increase by 160 percent by 2020.

The congestion, accidents and air pollution that already result from traffic idling behind long trains effects our local economy and our quality of life. The projected increases could be devastating if not addressed.

We are fortunate to have the ACE project which has already added safety improvements at 39 local street rail crossings and built seven grade-separated crossings. Seven more intersections are under construction and two additional projects will begin this year. Three grade-crossing are in design. That leaves three more grade crossings that need to be funded. 

As part of the reauthorization, President Obama has asked Congress to include $10 billion for a four-year “Multimodal Freight Investment Program.” His budget statement mentioned the "Alameda Corridor East project, a program of grade separation projects in the San Gabriel Valley of California" as the type of project that would benefit from funding for this new goods movement program. 

This is exactly the program that the SGV needs to manage the impacts from playing an integral role in the national distribution system. It will be good for our economy and our quality of life.