{"id":63931597,"date":"2007-01-10T22:46:37","date_gmt":"2007-01-10T22:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=63931597"},"modified":"2007-01-10T22:46:37","modified_gmt":"2007-01-10T22:46:37","slug":"fhwa-not-being-all-it-could-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=63931597","title":{"rendered":"FHWA: NOT BEING ALL IT COULD BE"},"content":{"rendered":"

An excerpt from BikeWalk.org newsletter (Centerlines #166):<\/em><\/p>\n

\nCommentary by Bill Wilkinson\n<\/p>\n

\nRECISIONS — SHOW ME WHERE THE MONEY WENT!<\/b>
\nLast October, Tom Murtha of the Chicago MPO posted a question on one of
\nthe listservs about how the various State DOTs have dealt with
\nCongressionally-mandated recisions for federal transportation funds.
\nPeriodically, the Congress will direct that the amount of funds
\nauthorized be reduced by some percentage. The FHWA allows each State
\nDOT to decide on its own what programs to take the required dollars
\nfrom to meet their required recision total. What this means is that if
\nthey so choose, a State DOT can take ALL of it from CMAQ or
\nTransportation Enhancements or Safe Routes to School or whatever, and
\nnot touch other programs.\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd, would you believe that this is exactly what some State DOTs opted
\nto do? Shocking.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nNow, back to Tom’s question: how have the various DOTs been
\ndistributing their recisions; that is, how many dollars did they take
\nfrom each of their various federal programs? Well, this seemed like a
\npretty straightforward bit of data and certainly something of
\nsignificance, so I spent some time looking for this info on the FHWA’s
\nweb site. Nada. So, I sent John Fegan, USDOT\/FHWA bike\/ped program
\nmanager, a request for help. John replied, “Let me look into it and
\nI’ll let you know what I find.”\n<\/p>\n

\nHe did: “I did look into this further. What I found out was that FHWA
\ndoes not publish a list of how each State chose to reduce funding to
\ndeal with the recision requirement.” Say what?\n<\/p>\n

\nHere, in part, is what I wrote back to John: “I wanted to let you know
\nthat I am very bothered about this. Such information is of great
\nimportance to many folks and should be a matter of readily available
\npublic record. For the FHWA to even suggest it is not tracking such
\ninfo is a breach of fiscal responsibility, and this is likely not the
\ncase. So, it can only mean that FHWA does not want to share this
\ninformation with the public.\n<\/p>\n

\n“This position isn’t going to stand. If you wish, feel free to let
\nwhomever know that I’m going to bring this to the attention of
\nCongressman Oberstar and his committee staff. I’ll wait a couple of
\nweeks, so do let me know if there is any change of heart at FHWA on
\nthis matter. It would be nice to simply have the FHWA do the right
\nthing — that is, make all such data readily available on its web site
\n— and avoid all this other bother.”\n<\/p>\n

\nUpdate: no further response from John or FHWA. Later this week I plan
\nto write to Congressman Oberstar, present the issue and problem, and
\nask for the Committee’s assistance to get the FHWA to do what they
\nshould have already done. If this is the kind of data that you or your
\nagency would like to have access to, you might want to let the
\nCommittee know that, too.\n<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, let’s all plan to keep a closer eye on the FHWA, AASHTO, and
\nthe State DOTs. They don’t necessarily share our priorities and
\nagenda. — BW\n<\/p>\n

oldId.20070110224637712<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An excerpt from BikeWalk.org newsletter (Centerlines #166): Commentary by Bill Wilkinson RECISIONS — SHOW ME WHERE THE MONEY WENT! Last October, Tom Murtha of the Chicago MPO posted a question on one of the listservs about how the various State DOTs have dealt with Congressionally-mandated recisions for federal transportation funds. Periodically, the Congress will direct … <\/p>\n

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