Skip to main content

Coalition to address deterioration in US transportation system

The American Crisis in Transportation Coalition (ACT) has been formed to expand national understanding of the serious deterioration of America’s transportation system, and to educate the public and Congress on the funding needed to save the system from continued decline.
April 25, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe American Crisis in Transportation Coalition (ACT) has been formed to expand national understanding of the serious deterioration of America’s transportation system, and to educate the public and Congress on the funding needed to save the system from continued decline.

The founders of ACT are former Wisconsin Secretary of Transportation Frank Busalacchi, who also served as a member of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, and John Boffa, owner of two marketing and research firms in Washington, DC which have a heavy concentration in transportation issues. Busalacchi also chaired the States for Passenger Rail Coalition.

ACT will use as its guiding document the final report of the surface transportation commission, which identified a $225 billion annual shortfall in transportation funding.

“Roads and bridges are deteriorating at an alarming rate,” Busalacchi said. “Transit systems on which millions of Americans depend to get to work are experiencing funding shortfalls. 2008 Amtrak trains travel through tunnels and bridges built in the 1800s. The federal gasoline tax has not been increased since 1993.”

ACT will call for funding increases for all modes of transportation, including a 40-cent increase in the federal gasoline tax, to be phased in over a few years to ease the impact on motorists.

“The highly respected American Society of Civil Engineers recently rated America’s roads with a D minus,” Busalacchi said. “That is just a notch above a failing grade. And they rated our transit systems with a D. People drive over bridges, or travel over railroad bridges, everyday without incident. But if they looked at the condition of the structures underneath, they would be horrified.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • How Covid has impacted transportation
    May 2, 2022
    How have Covid-induced changes in transportation impacted health? And how can transport companies mitigate these effects? Soheil Sohrabi of S-Plus-M and Texas A&M University explains
  • IBTTA sees ‘points of light’ in pandemic disruption
    April 15, 2020
    The IBTTA has identified several “points of light” for the tolling industry despite business problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Increased traffic forecasts underline need for well maintained roads
    March 19, 2015
    New traffic forecasts from the Department for Transport underlined the need for greater investment to improve the condition of the UK’s road network. The Road Traffic Forecasts 2015 predicts that levels of traffic will increase on motorways and major roads by up to 60 per cent in 2040 compared with 2010 levels. For principal roads the increase from 2010 to 2040 could be as high as 51% and for minor roads the prediction is up to 54 per cent. Car ownership is predicted to increase from 25 million in 2010 to 3
  • Transportation hub the centre of sustainable urban development
    November 21, 2012
    A marriage of transit, technology and culture is taking shape in Minneapolis, with ITS systems vital to hopes for a sustainable development centred on a hub of public transportation. Construction started in July this year on ‘The Interchange’ – a station in the Midwest US city of Minneapolis claimed as the most spectacular expression yet of the fast-spreading North American concept of transit-oriented development (TOD). Due for completion in 2014, the Interchange is designed as a multi-modal public transpor