Transportation for Florida’s Future

1. Moving FLORIDA Forward! Transportation for Florida’s Future

2. The Mess We’re In • Status Quo is Latin for “the mess we’re in.” • -Ronald Reagan Florida can’t afford the Status Quo!

3. Florida’s Economy • QUESTION: Is our economy: • - tourism, • - agriculture, or • - construction-based? • Florida has a • "TRANSPORTATION-based“ • economy.  • Without good transportation, • this region's economy … • grinds to a halt. 

4. The BIG Picture • TRANSPORTATION is really all about PEOPLE. It provides: • Safety, • Freedom and • Prosperity to all • the PEOPLE of Florida!

5. Florida’s Explosive Growth Trends in Mobility and Demand on the FIHS: Continued Growth Will Increase System Demands and Reduce Mobility • Lane miles are increasing at 1.3% annually

6. Florida’s Explosive Growth Trends in Mobility and Demand on the FIHS: Continued Growth Will Increase System Demands and Reduce Mobility • Lane miles are increasing at 1.3% annually • Population is increasing at 2.3% annually

7. Florida’s Explosive Growth Trends in Mobility and Demand on the FIHS: Continued Growth Will Increase System Demands and Reduce Mobility • Lane miles are increasing at 1.3% annually • Population is increasing at 2.3% annually • VMT is increasing at 5.4% annually.

8. What Growth Means • Each day, nearly 1,100 new residents move to Florida. Over one year, that’s like adding a new city the size of Tampa to Florida!

9. $23 Billion “Pothole” Over the next ten years we need an additional $23 BILLION … just to keep things the way they are TODAY! Funded $48.4 Billion Shortfall $22.7 Billion

10. Bleak picture? • “The picture’s pretty bleak, gentlemen… The world’s climates are changing, the mammals are taking over, and we all have a brain about the size of a walnut.”

11. What We Need To Do • 1.) Protect Existing Transportation Funding Sources  • State Transportation Trust Fund (STTF) and the new monies from the 2005 Growth Management legislation - $542 million annually Transportation “Hippocratic Oath” – First Do No Harm!

12. STOP Highway Robbery! • With a Special Legislative Session on the Budget scheduled for mid-September: • $80 million in TRANSPORTATION funding have already been targeted by Florida DOT, and • hundreds of millions more are in jeopardy as well.

13. STOP Highway Robbery! • TRUST in GOVERNMENT should not be an OXY-MORON • When the economy is slowing, don’t apply the brakes • The first casualty of a revenue downturn shouldn’t be safety • Traffic congestion is already very bad, why make it worse • Don’t Pull the Plug on Smart Growth Management Florida Can’t Move FORWARD If Our Transportation System Is In REVERSE!

14. What We Need To Do • 2.) Provide MORE Money for Transportation Improvements (from recurring and non-recurring sources) • Use technology to move away from a gas tax and towards a distance-based user fee. (Oregon pilot program) • P3s • Electronic Tolling • Managed Lanes (Rapid Bus Transit) • Truck Tollways

15. What We Need To Do • 3.) Move Ahead Quickly on New Transportation Corridors • (… and expand & enhance existing transportation facilities). • TIME = Money! • New corridors paid by tolls – not “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” • New corridors help provide congestion relief to existing routes.

16. What We Need To Do • 4.) EmpowerLocal Governments to Do More for Transportation • Local “Option” Rental Car Surcharge • Index Local Option Gas Tax • Index Motor Vehicle Fees

17. Selling Transportation • “Sell” TRANSPORTATION to (the 3 Ps): • Public, • Press, and the • Politicians. Facts are nice, but slogans sell beer. Aim for theheart… not the head!

18. Sell Truth & Offer Hope! • Hope: Story of the rail line built over the Alps from Austria to Italy – before a train existed that could make the trip! • Tell the truth about today’s transportation challenges – really “sell” the truth – and then offer hope.

19. FBT – Keeping Florida Moving Douglas J. Callaway, FBT President - (850) 521-1256 www.bettertransportation.org