Members of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials (AASHTO) are circulating an Intermodal Surface Transportation
Efficiency Act (ISTEA) reauthorization proposal for
approval by AASHTO's full membership this fall. Despite an avowed mis-
sion to "develop and disseminate recent advances in the field of transporta-
tion planning, including consideration of social, environmental and eco-
nomic factors and effects," the documents produced by AASHTO's
Standing Committee on Planning lambaste the elements of ISTEA that
emphasize departures from car- and road-centered transportation
policies. The drafts starkly illustrate the goals of AASHTO members who
last year characterized ISTEA as an indication of "pervasive anti-highway
forces" loose upon the political landscape (see MTR No. 4). The AASHTO
drafts call for elimination of many key ISTEA rules and programs. ISTEA's
public involvement provisions are called "burdensome" and "overly pre-
scriptive." Other provisions would weaken or eliminate (already slight) fed-
eral oversight of spending and planning. The authors obviously dislike
losing -- or even sharing -- any state DOT control over transportation pro-
grams. The Association has not yet voted to adopt the reauthorization plat-
form documents. Will the membership of AASHTO, an organization which
aspires to "be the acknowledged leader for transportation excellence," cling
to old highway habits and unilateral decision-making, or have new "ISTEA
attitudes" penetrated into enough state DOT's to stop the hard-liners?
Mobilizing the Region Number 45, 8 September 1995, published by
the Tri-State Transportation CampaignUp to the ISTEA Page