TRI-STATE TRANSPORTATION CAMPAIGN
Introduction
Transportation policies shape the built environment and dictate the way we live and work. Transportation spending decisions have far-reaching impacts from environmental quality and climate change to affordable housing and economic development.
The expiration of the federal transportation bill in September 2009 and its subsequent reauthorization offers an opportunity to win a more environmentally sound and socially just national transportation policy. However, even with drastic changes in the next federal bill, transportation spending decisions will largely remain in the hands of Governors, State Legislatures, and state and local transportation agencies.
As long as states are responsible for building and maintaining our country’s surface transportation system, they remain the central actors in transportation decision making and are the lynchpin for any lasting reform. The ability to influence policies, projects and spending decisions at the state level matters.
The states in which transportation reforms are taking place tend to have robust, well-organized advocates on the ground, pushing for more transit, safer roadways and smarter development patterns. Without this type of sustained pressure originating from outside transportation agencies, applying public scrutiny and demanding public accountability, decisions about the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars will likely be buried in technical documents or glossed over in short political sound bytes.
Who are these advocates and what types of reforms are they winning at the state level? What can we learn from these groups — many with over a decade of experience — fighting for a more balanced and equitable transportation system in their state?
In order to better inform and strengthen future advocacy efforts, this report highlights common challenges and key solutions to advancing policy change at the state level. We hope sharing these success stories will illustrate our collective expertise and make a case for additional support going forward.
This report is the culmination of over 20 interviews with some of the country’s leading transportation advocates and discussions from a day long conference with over 30 organizations engaged in state reform work. We asked interviewees and conference attendees: what did you win, how did you win it and what were the key ingredients for success?
The six case studies featured in this report demonstrate how state based transportation advocates successfully tackle common roadblocks to reform. These stories are not meant to be prescriptive. They are snapshots of how state reforms can produce a series of important policy, spending and project changes that advance sustainable transportation outcomes.
When it comes to transportation reform, we hope the success stories here, and countless others not included in this report, are just the tip of the advocacy iceberg to come. With support, we stand to win even more going forward.
Download full report (pdf): State Transportation Reform
About Tri-State Transportation Campaign
www.tstc.org
“The Tri-State Transportation Campaign is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to reducing car dependency in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Leading environmental and planning organizations formed the Campaign in the early nineties as a response to the mounting economic and environmental costs of automobile and truck dependence and promising reforms in federal transportation policy.”
Tags: Connecticut, CT, New Jersey, New York, NJ, NY, transportation, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, tsttc
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