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June 2003
Molnau, Bell share visions for transportation
Carol Molnau
Peter Bell
Moving people and goods as efficiently as possible—that is the overriding transportation goal of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, said two of the administration's top transportation leaders in the opening plenary session of the research conference. Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT), and Peter Bell, chair of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council, gave their visions for the future of transportation in the session moderated by CTS director Robert Johns.
Molnau calls for efficiency
Molnau, a member of the CTS Executive Committee, kicked off her comments by noting how the conference brings together key transportation stakeholders to consider new ideas, "and that's what we need in transportation across the country." Minnesota has been a leader in finding innovative ways to get things done, and as commissioner, she is learning even more about the importance of Mn/DOT research and the CTS partnership. "Research and knowledge help shape improvements to Minnesota's transportation system," Molnau said. Mn/DOT is committed to the advancement of transportation research and is proud of its role in the coordination, development, and implementation of research and new technology. "Research that sheds light on the costs and benefits of new technology, products, and applications ultimately benefits the state's taxpayers," she said.
Since assuming office, Molnau and her staff have been busy devising new ways to deliver more roads to Minnesotans faster and more efficiently, including the drafting of a new financial plan. The Pawlenty-Molnau transportation financing package will use trunk highway bonds to leverage future federal bonds, she said, delivering up to $1.2 billion in accelerated construction of long-delayed state highway and bridge projects.
"I approach my duties as a taxpayer," Molnau declared. People pay for Mn/DOT's services, and she wants to see that the department serves people and moves people and goods as efficiently as possible. The Pawlenty-Molnau package calls for redirection of approximately $42 million in current Mn/DOT spending to construction. "Our goal is delivery," she said, "and that's what we focused on and that's what our restructuring is all about." The plan also includes $50 million for intermodal transit advantages such as paved shoulders and park-and-rides in the metro area.
The Pawlenty-Molnau plan couples a clear commitment to building critical road and bridge projects with innovative financing tools to deliver progress to Minnesota drivers, she said. While the package isn't "the end all," in a year with a budget deficit nearing $5 billion, Molnau asserted, "it is a very good package." The department will continue to look for innovative ways to increase resources for transportation, a growing issue as revenues from the gas tax are projected to decrease with the rise of hybrid and hydrogen-powered vehicles. The ideas that come out of the CTS research conference, she concluded, will be important as Mn/DOT moves beyond its restructuring and initial transportation proposals.
Bell says region will face challenges
Bell, who also serves as a University of Minnesota regent, began by noting that the role of the Metropolitan Council is debated and questioned for legitimate reasons in many quarters. How will the council change under the Pawlenty administration? Any change is likely to be more evolutionary than revolutionary, he answered, and the tool of choice will be "rough sandpaper rather than a sledge hammer." Pawlenty will not dismantle the council, Bell said, but it is due for some modification and change.
The Pawlenty administration supports the two major organizing principles behind the council: first, there is a valid regional perspective to growth, and second, communities have a right to have distinctive identities and growth patterns. However, what a community decides can have a significant impact on adjacent communities and the entire region, he said. Growth patterns that are more clustered around transit lines save millions in infrastructure costs, have less impact on the environment, and give a greater sense of community. The model of bedroom communities that developed after WWII, where an individual lived in one area but worked in the central city, was "somewhat of an aberration," he said, and increasingly, individuals want to live in close proximity to where they work, play, shop, and send their kids to school.
The region will face challenges in the not-too-distant future, Bell warned. By 2030 the seven-county metro area is expected to be home to approximately a million more people—growth that will require new jobs and housing and put significant pressure on roads and transit. Projections are that the majority of household growth will be in developing communities outside of the first-ring suburbs, but job growth will be split between the inner and outer rings.
Congestion, Bell believes, is now the number one lifestyle issue in the seven-county metro area, and has even become one of the criteria in home-buying decisions, a new phenomenon and an emerging dynamic. He cited five factors affecting mobility and congestion: decentralized housing, increased levels of labor force participation, increasing levels of car ownership, smaller household sizes, and the number and quality of roads and transit options. In sum, "more people taking more trips in more cars over a longer distance per trip," he said. The Met Council is committed to addressing these issues in a comprehensive manner, by listening to the concerns of local officials, builders, housing and transit advocates, environmentalists, and others. "The Met Council works best when we use carrots, rather than sticks, in discharging our responsibilities," he said. "That hasn't always been the case."
He then set forth a number of goals for the council. One is to implement the service reductions required by the funding cutback in a way that "will allow the footprint of our transit system to be maintained and actually grow when we reach better financial times," he said. Anther goal is to explore the expansion of high-speed express buses on dedicated busways. And he is committed to bringing the Hiawatha light-rail system into service on time and on budget. "If there is going to be a future in LRT," he said, "it will be based in large measure on our making this line successful."
The future will pose many challenges for us, Bell concluded, not the least of which will be funding. He and Molnau are strong supporters of the new FASTLANE concept as introduced on the federal level by U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy and in comparable legislation in Minnesota, he said. This would allow the construction of additional lanes to be paid for through congestion pricing.