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

  • Seamless transport - the need for connectivity and sustainability
    January 24, 2012
    At the beginning of August, 2011, Carole Coune took up her new role as Secretary General of the International Transport Forum at the OECD. Here, she tells ITS International of the challenges and opportunities the global sector faces. Transport is a growth industry. Despite the current financial crisis, the trend for transport is pointing upwards. Demand is mainly driven by global economic integration, a growing world population and rising incomes in emerging economies. As we head toward nine billion humans
  • Seamless transport - the need for connectivity and sustainability
    February 6, 2012
    At the beginning of August, 2011, Carole Coune took up her new role as Secretary General of the International Transport Forum at the OECD. Here, she tells ITS International of the challenges and opportunities the global sector faces
  • Growth of outsourcing simplifies transportation operations
    June 11, 2012
    Xerox Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns will deliver the keynote address at the opening plenary of ITS America’s 2012 Annual Meeting in May. She talked to ITS International about the acquisition of ACS, its rebranding and the importance of the transportation sector to Xerox
  • Travel times halve for tolling converts
    August 5, 2013
    The Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver is a prime example of how the latest ITS systems enable new infrastructures to be built and paid for while still providing additional user benefits. Vancouver has 2.2 million inhabitants and, like so many major cities, is divided into two by a river, the Frazer river. This combination makes Vancouver the second most congested city in North America and the most congested in Canada. Through the middle of the city runs the Trans-Canadian Highway 1 which crosses the Frazer Riv