From Passenger Transport
By JOHN R. BELL, Program Manager-Communications
In a dramatic policy shift, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Jan. 13 announced that DOT will amend its New Starts and Small Starts grant requirements to rescind the stipulation that projects attain a cost-effectiveness rating of medium in order to get funding.
“We are going to free our flagship transit capital program from long-standing requirements that have allowed us only to greenlight projects that meet very narrow cost and performance criteria,” LaHood said to an audience of more than 1,000 people at the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Washington. “Instead, as we evaluate transit projects going forward, we will consider all the factors that help communities reduce the carbon footprint, spur economic activity, and relieve congestion,” he said to sustained applause.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter issued the same day, LaHood noted that to be recommended for funding, a project must still attain a “medium” rating for the overall project. “These include not only mobility-oriented benefits such as transit travel time, but also important economic development, environmental, social, and congestion relief benefits,” LaHood explained in the letter.