Colorado receives hundreds of millions of dollars every year from the federal government to spend on transportation. This money comes with specific rules regarding how Colorado can spend it. These rules reflect the priorities of Congress at the time it reauthorizes the federal law that controls this money, which happens every six years, and is coming up in fall of 2009.

Increasing funding for public transportation reduces traffic congestion and global warming pollution. photo © flickr.com/generated

The impact of the funding priorities reflected in this federal law cannot be overstated. Since the 1950s, federal funding through this transportation law has favored ever-expanding highway projects, leading us to where we are today - stuck with costly commutes, deepening congestion, volatile energy costs, dirty air and a threatened climate. Many citizens have no choice other than to drive to get to their daily destinations, which are ever further from where they live. We are getting more disconnected from our communities, stuck in our cars, with poisonous air quality and a treacherously warming climate. The federal transportation law has helped to drive this situation.

In 2010, with gas prices on the rise, and the current state of our economy providing a clear illustration of the results of this funding policy, it is time for a sea change. We need to change the way we do business in America and in Colorado; we need a 21st Century transportation solution.

Because the funding priorities set through the reauthorization process determine how a substantial portion of Colorado's transportation dollars will be spent for at least six years, the reauthorization offers a great opportunity to encourage Congress to prioritize the funding of things like more transportation choices for everyone and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution over the continued expansion of highway systems. CEC is working hard as part of a national coalition (Transportation for America, www.t4america.org) to ensure that the investments in America that will be made through the reauthorization foster healthy, accessible, livable communities, that have mixed-use, walkable downtowns as well as accessible housing near transit and job centers.

Congress has already begun debating how the federal transportation law should be changed. We are hard at work educating members of Congress on the impacts their decisions on this bill will have for Colorado as well as the nation as a whole, and encouraging them prioritize climate change, interconnectedness with land use decisions, economic opportunity, affordable housing, and energy security in the reauthorization process.

We are going to need your help to convince Congress that the policy changes we are recommending are important! Please make sure you are signed up for the Smart Growth alerts we send out and then stay tuned for opportunities to contact your Congressperson as this bill moves forward in Congress. You have the power to change the way America does business and move us towards a more multimodal, cleaner and greener future!