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Special Message to the Congress on Public Transportation.

August 07, 1969

To the Congress of the United States:

Public transportation has suffered from years of neglect in America. In the last 30 years urban transportation systems have experienced a cycle of increasing costs, decreasing funds for replacements, cutbacks in service and decrease in passengers.

Transit fares have almost tripled since 1945; the number of passengers has decreased to one third the level of that year. Transit industry profits before taxes have declined from $313 million in 1945 to $25 million in 1967. In recent years 235 bus and subway companies have gone out of business. The remaining transit companies have progressively deteriorated. Today they give their riders fewer runs, older cars, and less service.

Local governments, faced with demands for many pressing public services and with an inadequate financial base, have been unable to provide sufficient assistance.

This is not a problem peculiar to our largest cities alone. Indeed, many of our small and medium-sized communities have seen their bus transportation systems simply close down.

When the Nation realized the importance and need for improved highways in the last decade, the Congress responded with the Highway Act of 1956. The result has been a magnificent federally-aided highway system. But highways are only one element in a national transportation policy. About a quarter of our population lack access to a car. For these people-especially the poor, the aged, the very young and the handicapped--adequate public transportation is the only answer.

Moreover, until we make public transportation an attractive alternative to private car use, we will never be able to build highways fast enough to avoid congestion. As we survey the increasing congestion of our roads and strangulation of our central cities today, we can imagine what our plight will be when our urban population adds one hundred million people by the year 2000.

We can not meet future needs by concentrating development on just one means of transportation. We must have a truly balanced system. Only when automobile transportation is complemented by adequate public transportation can we meet those needs.

THE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM

I propose that we provide $10 billion out of the general fund over a 12-year period to help in developing and improving public transportation in local communities. To establish this program, I am requesting contract authorization totaling $3.1 billion for the first five years starting with a first year authorization of $300 million and rising to $1 billion annually by 1975. Furthermore, I am asking for a renewal of this contract authorization every two years so that the outstanding contract authorization will never be for a shorter period than three years. Over the 12-year period, $9.5 billion is programmed for capital investments and $500 million for research and development.

The program which I am recommending would help to replace, improve and expand local bus, rail and subway systems. It would help to develop and modernize subway tracks, stations, and terminals; it would help to build and improve rail train tracks and stations, new bus terminals, and garages.

The program would authorize assistance to private as well as public transit systems so that private enterprise can continue to provide public services in urban transportation. It would give State governments an opportunity to comment on project applications in order to improve intergovernmental coordination. It would require local public hearings before any major capital construction is undertaken. And it would permit localities to acquire rights-of-way in advance of system construction in order to reduce future dislocation and costs.

Fares alone cannot ordinarily finance the full cost of public transit systems, including the necessary capital investments. Higher fares usually result in fewer riders, taking much of the "mass" out of mass transit and defeating the social and economic purpose of the system.

One problem with most transit systems operating today is that they rely for revenues on people who must use them and make no appeal to those who have a choice of using them or not. Thus we have the self-defeating cycle of fewer riders, higher fares, lower revenues, worse facilities, and still fewer riders.

The way to break that cycle is to make public transit truly attractive and convenient. In this way, more riders will provide more revenues, and fares can be kept down while further efficiencies can be introduced.

In addition to assistance for capital improvements, I am proposing substantial research and technology efforts into new ways of making public transit an attractive choice for owners of private cars. These would include:

--Advanced bus and train design to permit easier boarding and dismounting.

--Improved interiors in bus and trains for increased convenience and security for riders.

--New traffic control systems to expedite the flow of buses over streets and highways.

--Tracked air cushioned vehicles and automated transit.

--Flexible bus service based on computer-forecast demands.

--New bus propulsion systems which would reduce noise and air pollution as well as cost.

--Systems such as moving sidewalks and capsules to transport people for short distances within terminals, and other major activity. In summary, this public transportation program I am recommending would give State and local governments the assurance of Federal commitment necessary both to carry out long-range planning and to raise their share of the costs. It would meet the challenge of providing resources that are adequate in amount and it would assure adequate duration of their availability.

The bus rider, train commuter and subway user would have better service. The car driver would travel on less congested roads. The poor would be better able to get to work, to reach new job opportunities and to use training and rehabilitation centers. The centers of big cities would avoid strangulation and the suburbs would have better access to urban jobs and shops.

Most important, we as a Nation would benefit. The Nation which has sent men to the moon would demonstrate that it can meet the transportation needs of the city as well.

RICHARD NIXON

The White House

August 7, 1969

Note: On the same day the White House Press Office released a news briefing on the message by Dr. Daniel P. Moynihan, Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs, James M. Beggs, Under Secretary of Transportation, and Carlos Villarreal, Administrator of Urban Mass Transportation, Department of Transportation.

Richard Nixon, Special Message to the Congress on Public Transportation. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239954

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