America’s rural roads are facing tremendous challenges including deteriorating conditions and a higher fatality rate than other roads and highways, according to a new
report released Thursday by TRIP, a national non-profit transportation research group based in Washington, D.C.”The safety and quality of life in America’s small communities and rural areas and the health of the nation’s economy ride on our rural transportation system. This backbone of the heartland allows mobility and connectivity for millions of rural Americans and provides crucial links from farm to market, moves manufactured and energy products, and provides access to countless tourist and recreational destinations,” Will Wilkins, executive director of TRIP, said in a statement.The report, “Rural Connections: Challenges and Opportunities in America’s Heartland,” argues that America must adopt transportation policies that will improve rural transportation connectivity, safety, and conditions to provide the nation’s small communities and rural areas with the level of safe and efficient access that will support quality of life and enhance economic productivity.The report calls for modernizing and extending key routes to accommodate personal and commercial travel; improving public transit access to rural areas; implementing needed roadway safety improvements; improving rural area emergency response times; and adequately funding state and local transportation programs to insure sufficient preservation and maintenance of rural transportation assets.
“Congress must not delay in passing a robust, multi-year highway and transit bill in order to address the transportation challenges faced in rural America and the nation as a whole. The reauthorization of SAFETEA-LU is a key opportunity to move U.S. infrastructure into the 21st century, bolster economic recovery efforts, and improve the quality of life in every corner of our nation,” said John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
AASHTO published a similar report on the state of rural roads in September 2010 (see September 30, 2010 AASHTO Journal story), which said that more investment is needed in America’s rural transportation system to keep agriculture, new energy products, and freight moving; improve access for the travel, recreation, and tourism industries; connect new and emerging cities; and to ensure reliable access to key defense installations.
The AASHTO report suggested that any reauthorization of federal surface transportation program should:
- Continue to fund rural portions of the Interstate Highway System and other federal-aid highways that connect America;
- Double federal investment in rural transit systems to meet rising demand; and
- Expand the existing capacity of the interstate system, upgrade rural routes to interstate standards, and connect newly urbanized areas to the interstate system.
