In the News
FHWA Administrator Mary Peters participates in the closing ceremonies of the Tour de Sol road rally in Washington, DC during National Transportation Week. Transcript follows:
FHWA Administrator Mary Peters
Tour de Sol event
Tuesday, May 14, 2002, 1:00 p.m.
The Mall & 3rd Street
I want to thank and congratulate all the participants in the Tour de Sol festival.
And I want to thank the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) for organizing this great event.
I'm happy to be here during National Transportation Week, which runs through Saturday. This is the one week a year when the entire transportation community joins together to bring attention to the importance of transportation to our nation.
Roads and bridges are the backbone of the U.S. economy - we should never forget that the mobility and the safety of all Americans is very, very important.
As Secretary Mineta has said:
"We are fortunate in this country to have a transportation system that fosters economic growth, quality of life and virtually unlimited access to goods, services and destinations."
FHWA is best known for building the interstate highway system . . . the 43,000 miles of limited-access highways that cris-cross our nation.
Clearly, we favor mobility for all Americans.
But we are also strongly in favor of clean air as evidenced by the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, which complements EPA efforts in metropolitan areas.
As each car in this competition shows . . . mobility and clean air are not a contradiction.
If you draw no other message from my remarks, I want to get out the word that we can have mobility and clean air. In fact, even as the total number of vehicle miles traveled has gone up 142 percent since 1970, national motor vehicle emissions have gone down 77 percent.
Your vehicle choice is the most important environmental decision you make. Today, we have a spirit of innovation and cooperation between the public and the private sector that shows we can produce environmentally friendly, fuel efficient vehicles without sacrificing safety, affordability or performance.
Natural gas, electric, gasoline-electric hybrid, and the soon-to-come family-size hybrid vehicles are showing the way.
For the last several years, FHWA has worked with EPA and FTA, the Federal Transit Administration, to develop a public education and partnership program.
We are informing the public about the connection between transportation choices, traffic congestion, and air pollution.
We call the program, "It All Adds Up to Cleaner Air."
Through the "It All Adds Up" program we encourage you to -
Maintain your car in top running condition, so it won't pollute or break down.
Combine errands to avoid letting the car cool down - that cuts down on "cold starts," which produce much greater emissions, and . . .
Choose other modes of transportation, such as sharing a ride, car or van pooling, taking mass transit, biking or walking, to reduce congestion and air pollution.
These are transportation choices each of us can make.
Seventy-five cities across the nation are now working on the program, using television, radio, print, transit and outdoor advertising, brochures, and community activities.
We have a web site where you can find information on "It All Adds Up to Cleaner Air."
Just walk over to our exhibit for more information.
We can keep America on the move and protect the environment too!
Everything I've see at Tour de Sol shows me -- proves to me -- that we're going in the right direction!
Mary Peters in front of the U.S. Capitol promoting clean cars and clean air
