This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 19, 2009 - Pete Rahn, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, spent Wednesday in the St. Louis area -- the "lion's den,'' so to speak -- where some media critics and concerned residents have been up in arms over MoDOT's decision to direct most of its $525 million in federal stimulus money to outstate projects.
Wednesday night, Rahn laid out MoDOT's predicament to several dozen area residents attending this week's Pizza & Politics event conducted at Webster University by the Holden Public Policy Forum. Former Gov. Bob Holden joined Rahn during his 90-minute appearance. Rahn said he'd just come from an earlier 90-minute grilling by the Post-Dispatch's generally critical editorial board.
In response to audience questions, Rahn said that the road or bridge projects selected for stimulus spending had to meet certain federal criteria, notably requirements that all the necessary paperwork (environmental impact, etc.) had already been completed, and that the project could be finished by next February (a year from when the stimulus bill was signed).
He said he was unaware -- until a Democratic congressman pointed it out -- that the bulk of Missouri's transportation stimulus spending was going to projects in congressional districts where the member of Congress had opposed the stimulus.
In the St. Louis area, the only major St. Louis County MoDOT stimulus project (Highway 141 and Page) is in the district of U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country, an outspoken critic of the stimulus.
Rahn said that about 35 percent of the stimulus money was being spent in the St. Louis area, if one included the stimulus portion that bypassed MoDOT and went directly to East-West Gateway. (Rahn didn't mention St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's famous recent segment on CNN, where the mayor angrily asserted that urban areas were being short-changed.)
Stimulus aside, Rahn had a number of other interesting observations:
-- Interstate 70 is "a worn-out road ... the base is mush.'' Among the reasons: heavy tractor-trailer traffic. "We build roads today to handle trucks, not cars," he said.
Rahn said that one tractor-trailer has the road impact of 9,600 cars.
-- Because 98 percent of Missourians' travels are by car, state officials believe that 98 percent of MoDOT's spending should be for roads and bridges. Mass transit is not a state priority, although Rahn hinted that he was somewhat sympathetic to those who sought a change.
-- Missouri has the nation's seventh-largest network of highways, but is 44th when it comes to spending on those roads. Half of MoDOT's state revenue comes from the gas tax, while a quarter comes from the vehicle sales tax and another quarter from drivers licenses and vehicle registrations. Total: roughly $1 billion a year. Another $800 million comes from the federal government. MoDOT needs far more.
-- "We can fix our transportation system with any number of ways,'' Rahn said. He listed three: Raising gas taxes, increasing sales taxes or imposing tolls on roads. But at the moment, none of those options have the necessary majority support from politicans or the public, he said.
-- Rahn predicted that alternate fuels for autos -- notably electric, and perhaps nuclear -- will be more popular options for the public than shifting to mass transit. "Wealth drives the choice for personal mobility and freedom,'' he said. Personal security is another reason the public prefers individual vehicles, he added.
Rahn noted, by the way, that he grew up in rural New Mexico: "I have no idea what it's like to ride a bus."
-- After decades of neglect by the Baby Boomers who did little to advance transportation policy, the United States now must commit itself to developing "a national system that is fluid and dynamic,'' Rahn said.
The chief reason: this century will see a global shift from "U.S.-centric'' to "Asia-centric."
United States businesses will be clamoring for their share of the global market, said Rahn. If transportation isn't improved, those businesses will flock to the coasts and Midwestern areas like Missouri will become "an economic desert."
