Problem :: The U.S. lags behind other modern 21st Century countries in addressing the needs of a comprehensive High-speed, metro, and light rail transportation system.

The U.S. lags behind other modern 21st Century countries in addressing the needs of a comprehensive High-speed, metro, and light rail transportation system.

1,542 Views / Posted by Taylor Morgan

Transportation

Traffic congestion costs the US almost $87.2 billion. The economic costs of traffic congestion have increased 63% over the past decade, and despite declining traffic volumes, caused by the economic downturn, Americans still waste more than 2.8 billion US gallons (11,000,000 m3) of fuel each year as a result of traffic congestion. Motorists also waste 4.2 billion hours annually, or one full work week per traveler.

In addition to the cost to the consumer there is also the cost to the environment. A 2002 study by the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute found that public transportation in the U.S uses approximately half the fuel required by cars, SUV's and light trucks. In addition, the study noted that "private vehicles emit about 95 percent more carbon monoxide, 92 percent more volatile organic compounds and about twice as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide than public vehicles for every passenger mile traveled.

Supporters: Taylor Morgan, Kyle Halgerson, Aaron Greenspan, Matteo Kausch, Kelly Wooters, Michael Andrews, Brian Sperling, Lisa Matulevicz, Timothy Suen, Howard Paige

Opponents: None

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4		Pass the American Jobs Act
		The American Jobs Act would call for the immediate investment in infrastructure and the creation of a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank, modernizing our roads, rail, airports and waterways while putting hundreds of thousands of workers back on the job.
2		Bring back the Works Progress Administration.
		"Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western areas. The budget at the outset of the WPA in 1935 was $1.4 billion a year (about 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP), and in total it spent $13.4 billion.[2] At its peak in 1938 it provided paid jobs for three million unemployed men (and some women), as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration."


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