Transit Initiatives & Communities Conference Salt Lake City June 2, 2009 Jennifer Henry

1. Partnering with Business examples of and advice on how to enlist the private sector to support transit Transit Initiatives & Communities Conference Salt Lake City June 2, 2009 Jennifer Henry Natural Resources Defense Council

2. Preview • Federal and State Examples in NRDC’s Experience • Local/Regional Examples in Your Experience • Concluding Advice • Blatant T4B Plug • Other Examples & Advice?

3. Federal & State Examples in NRDC’s Experience Climate: • USCAP (U.S. Climate Action Partnership) • BICEP (Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy) • E2/C2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs Climate Campaign) • SB 375

4. Local/Regional Examples in Your Experience • Silicon Valley Leadership Group • Transportation has always been an area of concern • Led 2 sales tax efforts, most recently to get BART extension & operations • Did 40-50% of the campaign fundraising, donated staff time, space, supplies • Long-standing relationship with VTA • Driving issue is employee access to jobs > recruitment & retention

5. Local/Regional Examples in Your Experience • Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility • “Verizon New Jersey’s decision to retain its 700-employee presence in Newark, and to invest more than $25 million, was influenced strongly by the City’s rail connections and access to the Northeast Corridor. As a company that spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year on our own infrastructure, we understand the importance of returning the Corridor to a state of good repair,” said Dennis M. Bone, President, Verizon New Jersey.

6. Local/Regional Examples in Your Experience • Unnamed smallish city • “they are starting to recognize the benefits to certain groups of employees, customers, and they are particularly excited about certain improvements like real-time signs or guaranteed rides home…but they tend to disappear into the background…they don’t have staff time to devote to long-term planning or advocacy”

7. Concluding Advice

8. Concluding Advice • Why • Cross-cutting support • Credible messenger • Resources (leadership & $)

9. Concluding Advice • Who to Approach • The obvious: Chambers • Otherwise: no particular sector—open-minded people wherever you find them, then leverage their friends/competitors. • “Find business leaders that want to work on larger community issues.” • Business community not monolithic

10. Concluding Advice • How to Approach • Time efficiently • Convince them a) that it’s a solution to a problem, b) that it’s going to be cheaper in the long run. • With evidence that transit IS being used. • With surveys or suggest surveys. • Figure out what they want; give some ownership of the campaign. • “find areas of agreement, don’t force ideology or be unwilling to compromise” • “It’s always good for the transit agencies to reach out, regardless of existing support”

11. Suggested Messages

12. “Transportation shapes our economy” • Movement (or congestion) of goods • Movement (or congestion) of customers and employees—the 100 largest metro areas contain 65% of population and account for 78% of GDP. • In 2005, congestion (based on wasted time and fuel) cost about $78.2 billion in the 437 urban areas, compared to $73.1 billion in 2004.

13. “Increases Disposable Income” • Average of about 20% of household budgets spent on transportation. • Affordable living is less attainable as fuel prices and trip lengths increase.

14. “Transportation Drives Real Estate Market”

15. “Opportunity Cost of Spending Public $” • Increasing awareness that infinitely expanding lanes doesn’t solve the problem

16. “Jobs” (service, but also manufacturing up the supply chain)

17. “Makes Business Travel Easier/More Productive”

18. “Reduces Need (Cost) of Parking”

19. Gas Prices Energy/Climate Concerns In 2009, we have a unique opportunity for change in the next transportation cycle. Demographics A Broke & Broken System

20. Blatant Plug for T4B • T4B = The Transportation for Business Network • Purpose(s): • Match business voice with policymakers and media audiences • First and foremost about the federal reauthorization • Minimize time commitment, maximize impact • Help organize a voice that has been historically—mostly— absent from the debate. • Current status: recruiting…who do you know?

21. www.transportation4business.org Blatant Plug for T4B

22. Contact Info: • Jennifer Henry (jhenry@nrdc.org / 312.651.7912) • www.transportation4business.org Other Examples & Advice?

23. Appendix: T4B Goals (full detail) • A nation's transportation system underlies its economic strength - the movement of goods, services, employees, and customers depend upon it, and it impacts the long-term health of its people and environment. Because of this, and because imminent federal legislation provides a rare opportunity to transform our approach to national transportation infrastructure investments, the Transportation for Business (T4B) Network represents a unified business voice, championing policies that will: • Base transportation investments on performance criteria related to clear national objectives, which should include: • improving the overall efficiency of the system, to move people and goods faster and at lower cost; • reducing our dependence on oil; • reducing climate-damaging emissions, soot or smog-forming pollutants, and other environmental and public health impacts; and • expanding economic opportunity and access to jobs for all Americans. • Allocate a significant portion of federal transportation dollars, and the authority to invest them, to metropolitan regions across the country, where the vast majority of economic activity takes place - the 100 largest metro areas contain 65% of population and account for 78% of GDP. • Support the completion of a world-leading, multi-modal 21st century transportation system by bringing balance to our infrastructure investments. Compared to our current allocation patterns, invest a proportionally greater amount of federal transportation dollars to maintain, expand, and better connect rail, bus, ferry, bicycle, and pedestrian networks to complement the existing road and highway network. • Place priority for federal highway dollars on intelligent management of traffic and bringing existing roads and bridges up to a state of good repair, before considering expansion of our extensive highway network - a commonsense "fix-it-first" requirement. • Allocate a significant portion of federal transportation dollars to maintain, operate, improve, and expand freight and passenger intercity rail. • Ensure that revenue streams to support needed transportation investments are sufficient, stable, and consistent with the need to build a new low-carbon transportation infrastructure network.