Despite progress being made on the building and repairing of the nation’s highways, public infrastructure in more remote areas of the country remains dangerously outdated and badly maintained, witnesses appearing before a Congressional committee asserted this week.
“Transportation in rural areas is just as important as transit in big cities,” Todd Morrow, the executive director of the Community Transportation Association of America told members of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure.
“People in rural areas, as in urban areas, need access to health care, places of employment, goods and services,” continued Morrow.
The importance of reliable transportation, added Morrow, is “especially true for vulnerable Americans: older adults, persons with disabilities, low-income individuals, and others.”
Not fully addressing the nation’s rural transportation needs is particularly important for the simple reason that so much of the nation is rural, said Washington Democrat Representative Rick Larsen.
“The Census Bureau estimates that 97% of the total land area in the United States is in rural areas,” remarked Larsen.
The Congressman additionally observed that rural areas are also the “first mile of supply chains that need infrastructure investment to efficiently get goods and products to markets.”
Speaking for the National Association of Towns and Townships, Mike Koles, former president of the group, remarked that “state highways function as the transportation system’s arteries and veins. And, like the human circulatory system, our local roads form the critical and vast majority of our capillaries that serve as the first and last mile of our economy.”
Continued Koles: “And I am here to tell you today that our capillaries have been neglected and are sick, and that sickness hinders our national economy and endangers our safety.”
A correction may be found in increased federal investment in rural transportation projects, suggested several speakers before the committee, particularly with a greater emphasis on tapping into an increasingly wide range of grant and funding opportunities currently coming out of Washington.
But for all of that, complaints were aired that federal funding is often made complicated by climate change policies, greenhouse gas performance measures, and what was called an over-emphasis on pedestrian and bike infrastructure projects.
Scott VanderWal, vice president of the American Farm Federation, pushed for an increase in Federal Highway Trust Fund fees, which he said could pay for the basic highway maintenance and road needs beyond those addressed in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
VanderWal urged lawmakers to fully fund the Trust Fund, to “ensure the continued viability of our transportation infrastructure and make sure all of those who use our highways pay into the Trust Fund.”
Committee member Henry Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia, suggested that some rural transit issues could be holistically addressed in legislation he introduced earlier this year called the Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act.
That legislation, creating a grant program designed to support the operational costs of transit for underserved and unserved rural communities, is under review in the House.
By Garry Boulard
