Environmental Defense, Transportation Groups Call for Public-Private Partnerships to Cut Congestion and Protect Environment

WASHINGTON — The national environmental advocacy group Environmental Defense today joined with highway and public transportation industry groups to encourage wider use of public-private partnerships to spur investment in transportation, reduce congestion, and protect the environment, noting that environmental performance and community benefit agreements could be helpful in expanding public support for mobility improvements.  

 

“It’s time for America’s transportation agencies to maximize highway system performance rather than just trying to build more roads. Better traffic management, market incentives like time-of-day tolls, and new performance-based contracting methods are key to getting the job done,” said Michael Replogle, transportation director for Environmental Defense. “Private firms can help governments accelerate innovation and ensure performance, but these deals need to be done in the open and include environmental performance and community benefit agreements if they are to sustain public support.”

 

Environmental Defense released a report today, No More Just Throwing Money Out the Window: Using Road Tolls to Cut Congestion, Protect the Environment, and Boost Access for All, which discusses how toll roads and public-private partnership contracts and legislation can promote environmental stewardship and equity. The report is posted at www.environmentaldefense.org/go/highperformancenetworks.

 

Replogle noted that if public-private partnership road projects apply tolls only to new lanes and use toll revenues only to build more roads, they will tend to exacerbate environmental and equity problems. But if tolls are used to manage both new and existing lanes for higher performance and to fund public transit and impact mitigation, equity and the environment can benefit greatly. Recent experience from San Diego and New York to Stockholm, London, and Singapore shows that toll traffic management of existing highways can produce huge time savings for motorists and substantial benefits for transit, walking, bicycling, the environment, and public health.

 

Environmental Defense, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 400,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems.

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