Editor's Notebook: Where can elected officials find common ground?
At press time, negotiations between the White House and members of the Republican party on an infrastructure bill are not looking pretty. This is typical and expected of any large proposal with a potentially massive price tag. For those of us who will be directly impacted – and, with infrastructure, that would mean every American – the wait, the slinging of accusations about the hold up in negotiations and general “swampiness” of it all can result in frustration.
At a May 21 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki described negotiations in the following way: “…this is the act, the art, I should say, of seeking common ground.”
If officials need common ground, they should look no further than public transit.
Transit is designed to move people, but these systems can do much more than that. Different modes are effective in various sized communities. Transit can help address the nation’s equity issues, economic issues and climate issues. The caveat with this being that any investment should avoid pouring additional money into historically bad decisions.
We were provided a solid example of the bipartisan nature of infrastructure, and specifically transit, when the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee published a full list of projects elected officials submitted as Member Designated Projects for consideration in an upcoming surface transportation bill.
Both parties submitted more than $2.2 billion in requests for 343 transit projects. Out of the transit projects, close to 10 percent were submitted by House Republicans. There were a handful involving projects in areas where transit is an obvious mobility choice, such as U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-01) submitting two requests for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority for grade-crossing safety improvements and station improvements and U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX-24) submitting a request for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Silver Line Track Improvement Project.
What drew my attention, are the requests on behalf of projects that would benefit transit users and operators in the less obvious places. U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE-02) submitted two projects for the Transit Authority of the City of Omaha, including transit center upgrades and preparation for zero-emission buses. U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-KS-02) submitted a request to help fund Topeka Metropolitan Transit Authority’s bus replacement efforts and U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL-13) submitted two requests that would benefit two Illinois transit providers: Connect Transit in Normal and the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District in Urbana.
While lawmakers are working to advance project funding, transit agencies are simultaneously making progress on demonstrating why transit is a reliable and resilient community service worth investing in. After all, transit provides common ground because it truly is for everyone.
Mischa Wanek-Libman | Group Editorial Director
Mischa Wanek-Libman is director of communications with Transdev North America. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the transportation industry covering construction projects, engineering challenges, transit and rail operations and best practices.
Wanek-Libman has held top editorial positions at freight rail and public transportation business-to-business publications including as editor-in-chief and editorial director of Mass Transit from 2018-2024. She has been recognized for editorial excellence through her individual work, as well as for collaborative content.
She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association's Marketing and Communications Committee and served 14 years as a Board Observer on the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) Board of Directors.
She is a graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication.
