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Jed Boal ReportingHighway congestion frustrates most of us and it's increased dramatically nationwide during the last two decades. Visiting Salt Lake today, the US Secretary of Transportation announced a new national initiative to tackle highway, freight and aviation congestion.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta calls congestion one of the biggest threats to our economy. He points out that congestion kills time, wastes fuel and costs money, and we need a plan to tackle the problem.
Overstock.com is a booming Salt Lake business. It needs efficient roadways and airways to get its goods to you. Bottlenecks are bad for business. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta knows congestion slows operations at distribution center like Overstock.com's.
Norman Y. Mineta/U.S. Secretary of Transportation: "We do not want transportation to be the chokepoint of your economic activities."
He says America loses $200 billion a year due to freight bottlenecks and delayed deliveries. Consumers lose 3.7 billion hours and 2.3 billion gallons of fuel sitting in traffic jams. Airline delays waste $9.4 billion a year.
Norman Y. Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation: "Congestion is one of the largest single threats to our economic prosperity and to our way of life."
The National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America's Transportation Network aims to tackle congestion. The US DOT will focus resources, staff and technology to cut traffic jams, relieve freight bottlenecks and reduce flight delays. The initiative will forge partnerships with communities like Salt Lake willing to try new strategies.
It calls for better use of new operational technologies and practices that end traffic tie-ups. It designates new interstate "corridors of the future," targets port and border congestion, and expands aviation capacity.
Norman Y. Mineta: "Congestion does not have to be a way of life. We don't have to let traffic delays put our lives on hold any longer."
The Secretary will convene a commission next week to find solutions to raise revenue for highway and transit projects.
