Huffman Holds Public Transportation Ride-Along to Highlight Importance of Transportation Funding

May 12, 2014

Petaluma, CA—Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) held a public transportation ride-along on Monday, May 12 to highlight the importance of federal transportation funding. Huffman, along with Denis Mulligan, General Manager of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District and Raymond Messier, President of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1575, rode a Golden Gate Transit bus from the Petaluma Transit Mall to the San Rafael Transit Center where they met Marin Supervisor Judy Arnold and San Rafael Councilman Damon Connolly.

During the bus ride down Highway 101, Huffman spoke with North Bay commuters about the Highway Trust Fund, which funds transportation projects across the United States. Due to Congressional inaction and other factors, the Highway Trust Fund is running out of money and its authorization will expire by the end of September, forcing widespread layoffs and delays or cancellations of critical highway maintenance and public transportation projects. If this funding disappears, projects across the country may be halted, including a planned suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge, work to widen the Novato Narrows, and highway maintenance projects up and down the North Coast. If Congress acts, the crisis could be avoided.

“The Highway Trust Fund will go broke this September and it will only get worse. Members of Congress must remember that this calamity will affect the entire nation’s transportation infrastructure: from public transportation programs, to regular maintenance of our highways, to urgent projects to ensure the safety of our roads and bridges,” Rep. Huffman said. “We must work together to find a solution rather than kicking the can down the road and applying a routine, Band-Aid fix like a dip into the general fund.”