Tell Obama and Congress Your Transportation Wishes

Rendering of proposed N. Florissant MetroLink from the 5th Ward Plan

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is asking for comments (both written or video) about what should be priorities for transportation funding. Go to itoldthepresident.org to submit your comments. AASHTO is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that represents state departments of transportation. They will be collecting comments through January and sharing them with Congress and the White House. According to Tony Dorsey, an AASHTO spokesman, they will "mine the information for patterns ... if we hear a lot of people talk about congestion (or say need for more transit), we'll tell Congress and the (Obama) administration that congestion was their top priority, and they want something done about it".

In the last few weeks, there has been much talk of an economic stimulus bill containing tens of billions of dollars for transportation projects. Obama and congress will also need to pass a new transportation bill before federally funded highway and transit programs expire in September 2009.

Why am I blogging about this? Because as most of you are probably well aware, transportation infrastructure planning and implementation has profound direct and indirect affects on the built environment. I will be commenting about the need for additional funding for MetroLink expansion and operation dollars as well as the need for the State of Missouri to start bucking up its fair share of the funding pie for transit. Please take a few moments and submit yours.