WHEREAS, April 9, 2015 has been designated National Transportation Infrastructure Day to highlight the tremendous economic impact of the nation's transportation network and urge investment in its critical infrastructure; and
WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the United States of America's economies rely on a safe, efficient, interdependent and multimodal network of roadways, bridges, transit, freight rail, aviation, ports and intercity passenger rail; and
WHEREAS, The nation's roads and transit systems received a grade of D from the American Society of Civil Engineers in their 2013 Report Card for America's Infrastructure, which noted that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has the highest number of structurally deficient bridges in the nation and experiences traffic fatalities at a rate 18 percent higher than the national average; and
WHEREAS, The nation's highway and bridge rehabilitation needs now exceed 500 billion dollars and the state of good repair backlog of public transportation systems has grown to 86 billion dollars. Every American bears the burden of our nation's deteriorating infrastructure, spending billions of additional hours in traffic and billions of dollars more for fuel, repair and operating expenses, and consumer goods as a result of the nation's congested and deficient roads; and
WHEREAS, Investing in the restoration of the infrastructure that supports our transportation network not only enhances the mobility and quality of life of all Americans, it creates and preserves millions of family-sustaining jobs critical to the nation's economic competitiveness; and
WHEREAS, The federal government has an inherent responsibility it shares with state and local governments to build and preserve the transportation infrastructure that ensures the nation's prosperity and security; and
WHEREAS, The Highway Trust Fund that supports the federal highway and transit programs will become insolvent on May 31, 2015, and a succession of costly annual short-term patches fail to meet the nation's basic transportation needs; and
WHEREAS, On National Transportation Infrastructure Day, Philadelphia's Dilworth Plaza is hosting citizens, businesses, labor organizations and community groups for one of the country's largest Stand Up for Transportation rallies to raise awareness of the federal government's essential role in providing the infrastructure that maintains America's efficiency, productivity and global competitiveness; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby urge the United States Congress and the Pennsylvania General Assembly to fund critical transportation infrastructure, and recognize April 9, 2015 as Stand Up for Transportation Day in the City of Philadelphia.
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