For Immediate Release

NEWS RELEASE

Congestion Stifling the Economy, Frustrating Drivers
Motorists' Group Demanding More Effective Fuel Tax Investments

(WASHINGTON) September 18, 2007 - Today, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University released a new report detailing the cost of wasted time and fuel in the 85 largest urban areas. The report finds that Americans wasted a record-high $78.2 billion sitting in traffic congestion in 2005. 2.9 billion gallons of fuel, and 4.2 billion hours of time were wasted in congestion.

The TTI report is more bad news for American motorists, who are already acutely concerned about the safety of American aging bridge and highway infrastructure.

The American Highway Users Alliance (The Highway Users) has called on Congress to refocus the national highway program on critical federal safety and mobility needs and elimination of wasteful diversions and embarrassing earmarks. According to President and CEO Greg Cohen, "Americans would be willing to pay more for a better program; one that focused on improving safety and mobility on our most important highways."

The Highway Users' Honorary Chairman, former Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta has said, "Congestion is not a scientific mystery, nor is it an uncontrollable force. Congestion results from poor policy choices and a failure to separate solutions that are effective from those that are not."

Unfortunately, effective mobility and congestion relief projects are often held up in bureaucratic red tape, or have taken a back seat to projects that divert fuel taxes away from critical highway needs. This has created public pessimism that congestion is inevitable and cannot be stopped. Such pessimism also causes frustrated government officials to avoid responsibility by blaming the motorists themselves. Yet blaming drivers, tolling them, and/or trying to change their behaviors has never helped them.

Much can be done to restore optimism, relieve congestion and increase driving freedom. "One thing Congress can do is create a national competition among metropolitan areas to improve their mobility progress - with special funding awarded to the best urban areas. Another idea is to create a national program to eliminate the nation's worst commuter and freight bottlenecks."

Over the next 20 years, The Highway Users has found that relieving the country's worst 233 traffic bottlenecks would eliminate more than ¾ of the delay at the worst chokepoints, save more than 40 billion gallons of fuel over the next 20 years, prevent half a million crashes, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 400 billion tons.

Incredibly, there is no major federal highway program that effectively prioritizes congestion relief. Cohen concluded, "Today, many motorists are confused about how their fuel taxes are spent. Congress needs to address their concerns and establish safety and mobility priorities. Then motorists will renew their 'trust' in the Highway Trust Fund."

The time to act is now!

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The American Highway Users Alliance represents motorists, bus companies, truckers, RV enthusiasts, motorcyclists and a broad cross-section of businesses that depend on safe and efficient highways to transport their families, customers, employees, and products. Highway Users members pay taxes that finance transportation spending programs and advocate public policies that dedicate those taxes to improved highway safety and mobility.