April 22, 2021
The Honorable Senator Michael Bennett
261 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20002
The Honorable John Hickenlooper
374 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20002
The Honorable Representative Diana DeGette
2111 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Representative Ed Perlmutter
1226 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Joe Neguse
1419 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Lauren Bobert
1609 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Representative Ken Buck
2455 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Representative Doug Lamborn
2371 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Representative Jason Crow
1229 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senators Bennett and Hickenlooper and Representatives DeGette, Perlmutter, Neguse, Bobert, Buck, Lamborn, and Crow:
We are writing on behalf of the Denver Streets Partnership (DSP) to urge you to increase funding for public transit through Surface Transportation Reauthorization. The DSP is a coalition of community organizations advocating for people-friendly streets in Denver. On people-friendly streets, walking, rolling, biking, and transit are the first choices of transportation for all people. Streets for people are living, public spaces that connect us to jobs, schools, services and each other, and are designed to foster health, happiness, and opportunity for all.
Thanks to action by the U.S. Congress over the past year, public transit systems have survived the greatest threat they have ever faced. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis across the country put public transit in existential threat. Thanks to the CARES Act and further emergency relief in 2020, and the American Rescue Plan that passed recently, public transit has bypassed disaster. With this funding, we’ve been able to reverse significant layoffs, service reductions, and closures that would have been catastrophic if maintained much longer.
But public transit can’t just return to pre-COVID conditions. The pandemic dramatically showed that transit is essential to our communities, local economies and the lives of millions of people across the country. Essential workers depend on transit, small businesses depend on transit, historically marginalized communities depend on transit.
President Joe Biden has called for the country to build back better. We can’t build back better without robust investment in public transit infrastructure and operations. Biden’s plan says, “this is no time to just build back to the way things were before, with the old economy’s structural weaknesses and inequalities still in place. This is the moment to imagine and build a new American economy for our families and the next generation.” Public transit is the foundation of our communities and the economy. It must also be the scaffolding for the new economy we create.
Transit is an economic engine. Tens of millions of people in the U.S. rely on public transit to get to work every day, generating trillions of dollars in economic activity. Every dollar invested in transit offers a five-to-one return and every $1 billion invested produces 49,700 jobs.[1] Transit agencies, like the Regional Transportation District, which as of March 9, 2021 employs 3897 people, are often among the largest employers in their cities.
Transit is a vehicle for racial equity. Investing in public transit is also an investment in racial justice because it is essential to the economic well-being of communities of color. Sixty percent of transit riders are people of color.[2] Yet over the past several decades, the federal investment in transportation has consistently neglected public transit. The systemic racism of mass transit disinvestment needs to stop.
Transit cools the planet. Reinventing the future of public transit infrastructure is also key to tackling climate change. Over 28 percent of greenhouse gases in the U.S. come from transportation, making it the largest contributor of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.[3] Both Colorado and the Denver region have ambitious climate and air quality goals that cannot be met without investment in public transit, which will help reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gases emitted. Now is the time to invest in the public transit infrastructure for the future.
For all these reasons, we urge you to pass a Surface Transportation Reauthorization that puts our transportation priorities in balance. We call on Congress to increase funding for transit to the same level as highways, and to make necessary investments so that all Americans have access to high quality, safe, affordable, and reliable public transit service and transit-friendly communities.
These new investments would include:
- Create a new operating support program – Modernize transit operations funding to secure frequent and affordable service: Provide $20 billion in annual funding for operations to ensure the majority of Americans are within walking distance of frequent transit by 2030. Transit agencies should prioritize service in transit dependent neighborhoods to meet the needs of essential workers, communities of color, and low income communities. This could also include support for transit agencies or local communities that wish to provide free or reduced fares. Operating support should be a federal match to local sources of revenue and connected to ridership and incentivize better networks with more frequent service.
- Sufficient capital funding that will:
○ Provide enough funding to meet the demand for new and expanded service: Congress should establish a $12 billion annual capital investments program, with $6 billion allocated by formula and $6 billion allocated through discretionary grants for capital projects that improve access to frequent transit for low income people. The existing capital expansion program — Capital Investment Grants (CIG) — is over-subscribed, providing about $2 billion annually despite the $23 billion worth of projects in the pipeline. This new capital expansion program will begin to meet the demand for new and expanded transit.
○ Reduce deferred maintenance and the national repair backlog: Provide $18 billion for maintenance annually with a goal of eliminating the backlog in 12 years. - Fund Zero emission fleets: Congress should require that the Bus and Bus Facilities program be used exclusively to procure no-emission vehicles and the infrastructure needed to support them. Congress should also significantly increase funding for the program to meet the demand and support a transition to 100 percent zero emission fleets.
- Build safe streets and transit friendly communities: Every transit trip begins and ends as a pedestrian or cyclist, yet pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are increasing, particularly for low income and people of color, because our community roads are dangerous by design.[4] Safe streets support investments in public transit, improve equity, and help respond to the climate crisis. Congress should reform federal highway programs to require roads to be designed with safety as a priority, including for vulnerable road users.In addition, Congress should provide $7 billion to fund equitable Transit-Oriented Development (eTOD) to fund and integrate preservation of affordable housing, increasing affordable housing near transit, and access to active transportation.
- Transit workers are essential, treat them as essential. Transit workers of all kinds should receive prevailing wages and receive hazard pay when appropriate. Diversity, equity and inclusion should be prioritized in hiring and promotion.
We welcome the opportunity to continue this conversation with you and look forward to working together as you shape transportation reauthorization legislation.
Sincerely,
Jill Locantore
Executive Director
Denver Streets Partnership
Molly McKinley
Vice-Chair, Denver Streets Partnership Steering Committee
Policy and Organizing Manager, Bicycle Colorado
Hilarie Portell
Transportation Chair
All In Denver
Piep van Heuven
Director of Government Relations
Bicycle Colorado
Deyanira Zavala
Executive Director
Mile High Connects
Jonathan Cappelli
Executive Director
Neighborhood Development Collaborative
Julie Reiskin
Executive Director
Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition
Nadine Bridges
Executive Director
One Colorado
[1]https://www.apta.com/research-technical-resources/research-reports/economic-impact-of-public-transportation-investment/
[2]https://www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/Resources/resources/reportsandpublications/Documents/APTA-Who-Rides-Public-Transportation-2017.pdf
[3] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#t1fn2
[4] https://smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design/