TIGER II Rips Another Hole in the Federal Budget

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood put your money where his mouth is when he dedicated well over 40 percent of the latest round of “Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery” (TIGER) stimulus funds to streetcars, pedestrianways, and other “livability” projects. The biggest grant was $47.67 million towards a 2.7-mile, $72 million streetcar line in Atlanta.

In all, the grants totaled about $584 million, of which $557 million went for actual construction and $27 million went for planning. Almost 85 percent of the planning money was for some form of a livability program (transit, pedestrianways, “complete streets,” multi-modal stations, etc.), while 40 percent of the construction funds went to livability, 24 percent to highways, and 36 percent to freight projects.

In addition to the Atlanta streetcar, Salt Lake City received $26 million towards a $55.55 million 2-mile streetcar line that will run perpendicular to the city’s main light-rail line. The city expects the streetcar to carry 3,000 people a day, taking 800 auto trips per day off the street. The cost of both the Atlanta and Salt Lake streetcar lines are expected to average about $27 million per mile.

A little over $200 million went for freight projects, mostly rail lines and port districts. Many of the freight rail projects went to marginal branch lines abandoned by major railroads and now being operated by regional railroads or public agencies. The Port of Coos Bay, Oregon, received nearly $14 million for a rail line that was abandoned by a regional carrier when it became too dilapidated to run. The truth is that there is practically no more industry on this route, and the Port of Coos Bay exists mainly to transfer money from taxpayers to construction companies. The Antiplanner believes railroads and ports should pay for themselves out of user fees and not rely on taxpayers to keep them running.

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The descriptions of many of the livability projects are almost laughable. A $16.5 million grant to Niagara Falls, NY promises to “establish an intermodal transportation center for the City” by building a new train station for Amtrak. The reality is that so few people get on or off Amtrak trains at Niagara Falls–an average of just 65 per day in 2009–that Amtrak recently considered closing the station for ticket sales, baggage handling, and other staff. The project is pure pork.

Many of the planning grants sound so similar that they could all have been written by the same software. Phrases like “mixed-use redevelopment,” “access to jobs and open spaces,” and of course “multi-modal transportation” are repeated over and over. Since these things are almost impossible to measure, it is clear that the funds were allocated based on intentions (or NewSpeak) rather than any real anticipated results. Meanwhile, projects that could seriously reduce congestion and that would be funded mainly by user fees, such as toll lanes in Atlanta, were rejected.

Perhaps the only good news is that LaHood didn’t have enough money to fund even more ridiculous projects, such as the Cincinnati streetcar. When the feds are handing out free money, of course, lots of people will stand in line; in fact, the 70 grants that were funded represent only 7 percent of the $19 billion worth of grant applications.

Building streetcars in Atlanta and Salt Lake City, multi-modal stations in Des Moines, Moline, and Moscow (Idaho), and bicycle/pedestrian paths in Bentonville, AR, Ft. Valley, GA, and Peoria, IL is not going to revitalize our economy. While it is not clear that all of this $584 million is wasted, it is clear that none of it should be funded by federal taxpayers.