James Oberstar: “The European community nations have achieved a remarkable milestone. They have achieved a 10 percent mode shift from…”

“The European community nations have achieved a remarkable milestone. They have achieved a 10 percent mode shift from automobiles to transit. The State of New Jersey has also achieved a mode shift to 10 percent of all travel by transit. If we can make that mode shift nationwide in the U.S., we will save the equivalent of all the oil we import from Saudi Arabia. That's 550 million barrels a year. The recommendations from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure incorporated in this bill will move us in that direction. We authorize $1.7 billion of capital operating funds for transit agencies to reduce fares and expand services, to purchase alternative fuel buses, alternative fuel locomotives, ferries, and refueling facilities. If the alternative transit program had been continued with vigor, there was a very successful hydrogen bus initiative that produced vehicles that operated in Santa Barbara, California, that I had the privilege of going out there to ride in those buses. We can achieve those goals without a Manhattan Project or without a man on the moon project because we have the technology already in hand.”