America's Mayors Call for Metropolitan-Focused Transportation Investments

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to Speak at National Press Club

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. Conference of Mayors to release a new survey of its membership focused on metropolitan transportation investments. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed will speak at a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 3, 2011 in the National Press Building, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, D.C.  Two-thirds of U.S. residents live in metropolitan areas, home to the highest numbers of unemployed, the nation's worst traffic jams, and its oldest roads, bridges and transit systems. But far less than two-thirds of federal transportation funds are allocated to cities and metropolitan areas.

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Among the major findings of the Metropolitan Transportation Infrastructure survey:

• Ninety-eight percent of mayors point to investment in affordable, reliable transportation as an important part of their cities' economic recovery and growth.
• Three in five mayors said they would not support an increase in the federal gas tax if federal transportation funding were allocated among programs in the same proportions that it is today.
• Ninety percent of the mayors urged reforms in federal transportation programs to allow cities and their metropolitan areas to receive a greater share of federal funds directly. 
• More than three in five mayors have established a dedicated local funding source for transportation improvements, which would enable them to meet federal transportation project matching requirements. 
• Absent a greater share of funding directly to cities and metropolitan areas, only 8% of the mayors indicated support to increase the federal gas tax.  

SOURCE National Press Club