Safe and Complete Streets Act

Floor Speech

Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2008.

This needed legislation is based on the principle that our Nation's transportation system should be safe and accessible to all people. Motorists, bicyclists, transit users, pedestrians, the disabled, and the elderly all use our country's transportation network each and every day. The Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2008 will ensure that the needs of all of these users are accommodated during the transportation planning process.

Complete streets are an essential part of well-designed communities that are livable for children, families, the elderly, and people of all ages and abilities. By providing our constituents with sidewalks on which to walk, well-lighted transit stations in which to wait for the bus or light rail, clear lanes in which to drive, and bike lanes in which to ride, we can encourage them to utilize alternative modes of transportation. This can make our transportation system most effective and useful.

Madam Speaker, our constituents are struggling to deal with the skyrocketing cost of gas. As their pocketbooks are hit increasingly hard at the pump, many Americans are turning to alternative methods of transportation. In my hometown of Sacramento, where gasoline is nearly four dollars per gallon, my local newspaper recently reported on the growing number of my constituents who are riding their bicycles to work because of the prohibitive price of filling a car up with fuel.

For these reasons, Americans around the country are eager for transportation alternatives. The Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2008 is a strong step toward a future where travelers are presented with a range of transportation options. By requiring States and metropolitan planning organizations to accommodate the needs of all users of the transportation system in their planning processes, this legislation will broaden access to the streets that tie our communities--and our Nation--together.

Incorporating these kinds of complete streets principles will help us move away from the kinds of transportation planning that causes seniors to avoid walking to the store because of the lack of sidewalks. It will help usher in a day when commuters feel safe riding to work on their bicycles because the streets now accommodate bikes. It will ease the fears of parents across our country who hesitate to allow their children to walk to school because of the danger posed by so many cars driving near sidewalks. It will reduce the risk posed to disabled Americans who are forced to deal with a transportation system short on painted crosswalks and audible walking signals. And it will encourage people to take public transit because they will no longer have to wait for the bus at a stop that is nothing more than a pole in the ground.

Complete streets also have a number of non-transportation-related benefits. In a country where nearly one-third of adults are obese and the number of overweight children has tripled since 1980, giving people options to walk or take public transit can play a major role in reducing these disturbing trends. In terms of fighting global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends as a key climate change mitigation strategy the shifting of travel modes from driving to walking, taking transit, and bicycling. There is ample room for complete streets to help bring about this needed paradigm shift in the way we travel--65 percent of trips in the United States under one mile are now made by automobile. In one Colorado city, local efforts to take transit, use bicycles, and carpool have helped reduce carbon dioxide by half a million pounds. If one city can achieve such success in reducing emissions by changing transportation patterns, the possible emissions reductions through implementing a nationwide complete streets policy are staggering.

Madam Speaker, we live in a time when local governments are strapped for cash. In such a fiscal climate, we should make investments today that will pay out over the long term, and that will help us avoid the need to make costly adjustments to our current transportation system down the line. Incorporating complete streets principles today will help communities save precious dollars in the future by eliminating the need for costly retrofits.

I know this to be true because of the experience of my own congressional district, where the City of Sacramento is preparing to spend $12 million to update a bridge that was built in the 1930s without adequate sidewalks. Another example of the power of complete streets to save money is from Illinois. There, the legislature passed a complete streets law last year after the state was forced to spend nearly a million dollars adding a foot and bike path to a bridge where several pedestrians and bicyclists were hit and killed by motorists.

But the bottom line, Madam Speaker, is that the Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2008 is good policy because of what it can help us do for our communities, not for the costs it can help us avoid. Encouraging people to use all the various modes of transportation available to them will strengthen public health, reduce congestion, improve air quality, and increase the interconnectedness of our communities. It will help create a national transportation network that works for all Americans regardless of their age, income, or preferred mode of getting around town.

The time has come for this Congress to start thinking about what we want the legacy of American transportation to be. I know I speak for many of my colleagues when I say that we want this to be one where all users of our streets feel safe and accommodated. The Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2008 is a first step toward creating this kind of practical, efficient, and inclusive transportation system, and I am proud to introduce it here today.

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