James M. Jeffords: “the EPW Committee has been working this bill for the past 2 years. Senators Inhofe, Bond, and Reid and I have been very…”

“the EPW Committee has been working this bill for the past 2 years. Senators Inhofe, Bond, and Reid and I have been very involved in this process. From the beginning, we wanted to accomplish a few important national goals: First, improve roads and bridges; second, move freight; third, address congestion; and fourth, improve safety. Congestion is a growing concern all across America. Each day, Americans spend more time in their cars as they pursue routine activities, such as going to work, taking the kids to school, or picking up some groceries. As our Nation's population grows, travel demands grow as well. The number of miles traveled annually on our Nation's roads is increasing at a substantial rate. Many roads are at or approaching their physical capacity. In many areas of the country, it is both impractical and financially infeasible to add lanes to existing roadways. However, we can increase capacity by actively managing the transportation network. Intelligent transportation systems provide State and local governments the data and tools necessary to undertake time saving activities like incident management, ramp metering, traveler advisory systems, and variable pricing.”