This is our year. Infrastructure is no longer just a word thrown about by policy wonks and engineers. The public, and more importantly politicians, have made public works, especially transportation, a front and center issue. The White House brings a fresh outlook to transportation policy and land use decisions. Already, President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (known to most as the stimulus package) provided approximately $46 billion directly to transportation. And, just as we’re beginning to put that money to use, we’re also beginning to launch into high gear on the reauthorization of the Federal Transportation Bill. The reauthorization will provide a longer-term strategy for building up an innovative, sustainable transportation policy.

The current authorization of federal transportation policy, the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), included $287 billion in approved funding, and expires on Sept. 30, 2009. We strongly urge legislators to act quickly on reauthorization to avoid further injuring our financially strapped transportation system. They must also think big (say $500+ billion big) and think wisely and efficiently.

The new administration clearly talks a good game when it comes to sustainable transport, and reauthorization is the perfect opportunity to “walk the talk.” But, it’s not just a matter of money — transportation investments can be constructive or destructive to our nation’s resources. Poor funding decisions can also increase our dependence on foreign oil which affects, in turn, foreign policy. Where and how we spend are the keys to a sagacious program. In short, we must rely less on cars and trucks and more on rail transport and buses. We must live closer to where we work and be able to walk, bike, or take transit there. We must end our culture of “consuming a gallon of gas to buy a gallon of milk.”

We were pleasantly surprised to find $8 billion in the stimulus bill for high-speed rail. Reauthorization should quintuple that number to spark at least five and maybe 10 high-speed rail corridors. It should be noted that China is spending over $1 trillion on high-speed rail in the largest public works project next to President Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System. Our goal is to make rail travel between large cities competitive with air travel for short-haul trips of fewer than 500 miles. This would reduce our carbon footprint and increase efficiency at overloaded airports. The United States rail system should also be strengthened to accommodate a much larger share of freight traffic. Rail is more energy-efficient than trucks, and one freight train is said to remove 200 trucks from the highway system.

The reauthorized federal transportation bill should encourage more competition in mode selection. For example, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is now competitive with light rail in terms of environmental impacts and speed, and boasts a comparable capacity at one-third of the cost. A new “New Starts” program (the federal funding vehicle for many light rail projects) needs to be revamped to reflect the reality of 2010 technologies.

Building highways in cities should be the option of last resort. Cities should be offered “highway diet” subsidies to not invest in new roads but rather reduce car-use through approaches like congestion pricing and improved transit. Instead of just a few hundred million being offered nation-wide for congestion pricing, we suggest $10 billion used to incentivize cities to make major modal shifts away from highways. We suggest this be cost-neutral by reducing highway investment by $10 billion.

Finally, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan have already been in discussions over possible linkages between transportation and housing policies. This could include locating affordable housing near public transportation, connecting existing housing communities with transit services, or building shorter street blocks to facilitate walking. We believe that there should be provisions in the new bill to encourage such links.

The 2009 reauthorization of the existing transportation bill should focus on changing existing modal splits. Our reliance on the interstate highway system for short-haul passenger or freight trips needs to change. We should shift our mid-haul trips from air to rail. Within urban areas we need to expand the use of BRT for high-quality transit. We must recognize that transportation affects where we live and work, and where we live and work affects transportation. Overall, we must reduce driver-only travel, curtail our reliance on foreign oil, and change our day-to-day behavior. Only a multi-agency approach can achieve a multi-modal society.

Samuel I. Schwartz, also known as “Gridlock Sam,” is president and CEO of Sam Schwartz Engineering PLLC, a consulting firm that specializes in traffic and transportation engineering. Annie Weinstock is a senior transportation planner at SSE. She works extensively with Bus Rapid Transit and sustainable transport.