Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
7336019
label
Remarks of the President at the Sixth International Conference on Urban Transportation [Ford Speech or Statement]
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
7336019
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Remarks of the President at the Sixth International Conference on Urban Transportation [Ford Speech or Statement]
citationUrl
collections
White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
7336019
levelOfDescription
item
productionDates
day
9
logicalDate
1974-09-09
month
9
year
1974
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
49c78ddd7281cb08
ocrText
Digitized from Box 2 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 9, 1974
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON URBAN TRANSPORTATION
Pittsburgh Hilton Hotel
AT 11:35 A.M. EDT
Will Rockwell, Senators Scott and Schweiker,
my former colleagues in the House of Representatives,
Governor Shapp, Mayor Flaherty, distinguished local
officials, ladies and gentlemen:
It is a very great privilege and an exceedingly high
honor for me to participate in this conference on urban
transportation, and I am especially grateful to be
participating here in the Golden Triangle in the area where
the City of Pittsburgh has done so much in the field of
urban transportation.
And may I also express my appreciation for the
Secretary of Transportation, Mr. Claude Brinegar, and
Mr. Russell Train of the Environmental Protection Agency
for joining me on this trip on this occasion.
I am told that some people in Europe heard about
my nomination of Governor Rockefeller and concluded that
we had solved our transportation problems in America.
The Europeans said that we now have a combination of a
Ford -- who makes automobiles == and a Rockefeller -- who
makes gasoline.
In any event, you are international authorities --
all of you are international authorities on urban transporta-
tion. You know better than I that we have too many automobiles
at the wrong place and at the wrong time, and not enough gaso-
line at the right place at the right time.
So it is essential that you in this conference
proceed, move ahead with the problems that you see, and
the problems that must be solved.
Even though I am not in the transportation
business, I am dedicated to the revival of efficient
transportation in our great urban centers here in the
United States. Pittsburgh, where we are meeting, in
the Golden Triangle, has done an effective and efficient
job, and I compliment the citizens and public officials
who have made this possible.
MORE
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
Page 2
Your theme of this conference -- Marketing Urban
Renaissance -- is appropriate, appropriate not only for
those of us in America, but I think worldwide. Anddall of
our cities, obviously will be observing the work, the
recommendations, the proposals that come from this
conference.
The relationship between urban regeneration
and urban transportation is extremely close. Among our
most pressing urban problems -- and your presence here
highlights it -- is transportation, especially the auto-
mobile. For the last 25 years, two decades and a half,
automobiles have been the most important factor in shaping
urban centers and expanding suburbs. The statisticians
tell me that there are some 100 million automobiles
on nearly 4 million miles of American streets and
highways. That makes one automobile for every two
Americans and most of those 100 million cars are in our
way when any one of us tries to go downtown.
Many Americans have moved to suburbs where
there is less and less traffic. My wife, Betty, and
I can vouch for the very restful suburban life and we
picked it for reasons that most Americans select it.
We raised our family in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside
of Washington, D. C., and on a personal note, I miss it,
especially my backyard swimming pool.
In the last two decades, suburban population grew
far faster than our central city population. And in
some instances, the population growth in our suburbs
resulted in an actual numerical decline in our central
cities. Americans, as a result, by the millions on a
day-to-day basis, drive to and from work. Most took
the road or the highway or the street, approximately at
the same time of day as everybody else. Frankly, I admire
the fortitude and the driving skill of the millions
of Americans who are on time going to work without police
and Secret Service escorts.
And may I thank the Governor and the Mayor for
the State and local police in Pittsburgh for their fine
courtesy and efficiency this morning. I am sure everyone,
everyone here especially, along with thousands, or literally
millions of other Americans have been caught in rush-
hour traffic jams. I know I have for a number of years
while serving in the House of Representatives and living
in Alexandria. Sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic has
become a way of life to far too many Americans.
As a Congressman, I was in New York City about
ten years ago and I asked a New York City policeman the
best way to get to Brooklyn, and he was very blunt
in his answer. "Buddy," he said, "the best way to get
to Brooklyn is to be born there." (Laughter)
MORE
GERALD FORD LIBRARY
Page 3
Obviously America must have better solutions.
That is what this conference is all about. Solutions
must be found for the growing problems of congestion and
pollution. The challenge now is complicated very
severely by our energy conservation.
As a Michigander with the name of Ford, you'dan
be sure I am not going to say anything unkind about
automobiles, but it is self evident that excessive use
of cars in dense urban areas increases pollution levels,
causes unbelievable traffic jams, massive headaches, and
bumper-to-bumper tie-ups which burn too much scarce and
expensive fuel.
I think last winter's serious energy crisis
drove home a message to our fellow Americans. The net
result is we must make major progress in improving urban
transit. We must move promptly, we must have a well-
planned, a well-coordinated action, an action program.
Priorities at the local level must be very
carefully laid out. If there is to be a renaissance
of urban transportation, that renaissance must be built
on solid, defendable concepts.
We must in this conference address ourselves to
the high priority need for action to halt the decline
which has developed over the past decade in existing or
traditional urban transit systems. And time is of the
essence.
Progress, fortunately, is being made. The
approximately 750 separate capital grants, totaling more
than $3 billion since 1970, which the Federal Urban Mass
Transportation Administration made to our cities to buy
buses and to add urban and commuter rail systems has
certainly helped.
It was encouraging, I think, to find that
mass transit ridership in the United States this past
year has risen above last year's level. And I think it
should be even more encouraging. This is the first
time such an increase has taken place since the end
of World War II.
Our Nation has to develop urban mass transit
systems that people want to use. Until we develop those
systems that offer convenience, comfort, and reliability
expected from the automobiles that Americans have been
traditionally using, tran sit service, even in our most
congested urban areas, will continue to be under-used.
MORE
FORD & LIBRARY BERRED
Page 4
That is why I believe this conference, with
its accent on transit marketing, is exactly on the right
target.
We know that most Americans for a wide variety
of reasons have simply not bought the concept of public
transit. Unlike the appealing and heavily used mass
transit of cities like London, Paris, Montreal, Munich,
and Moscow, public transportation in America is considered
by most of our fellow Americans as a painful last resort.
There is a terrible reluctance to go from what
they were brought up to use to something that is new and
different. There has to be something extra if we are
going to achieve a viable, mass transit system in most
of our urban metropolitan areas.
But let's take a look or a leaf, I should say,
from the book of the automotive industry. They have done
quite well with the product that they have promoted in
our country. We must compete with the automakers in
the effective promotion of products, in their imagination,
enterprise, and marketing skills.
I don't think there is a group of men and women
better qualified to carry out that mission than all of
you here today. But I quickly add, I don't minimize
the challenge that you are faced with.
Now as we move to improve our transit systems,
we must not lose sight of one very important fact: The
automobile is and will continue to be our chief trans-
portation vehicle. The automobile fits America's
traditional life style.
No matter how plush the bus, no matter how
comfortable the train, Americans, to one degree or another,
will continue to drive their automobiles. The car will be
with us for a long, long time to come.
But what we must do is to learn how best to
live with them in the urban scene. We have to develop,
to achieve the end that you seek and we must have, we must
develop and come forth with sound planning procedures,
transit programs and policies that are sufficiently
flexible to match the diversity of our many, many
cities.
MORE
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
Page 5
I think diversity of the community is the
keyand it does require some flexibility in our planning
for an adequate, usable, desirable transit system.
Because of this diversity, there is no one
best transit solution that will fit all of our cities.
Some are better suited for bus systems, others for
subways, fixed guideway systems, or for a combination
of such services.
MORE
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
Page 6
And in developing these systems, long-term
considerations require that transportation and
land-use planning be closely coordinated. And this,
of course, can only be done, in my judgment, wisely
and well at the local level.
There is a legitimate and major role to be
played by the Federal Government in assisting urban mass
transit systems. But I emphasize here that role must be
carried out in complete and total partnership with
States and localities. The heavy hand of the Federal
Government must not be the dictator that tells how
Pittsburgh or other communities should utilize their
systems or the funding.
Obviously, we will help with urban planning,
although under the new, better communities legislation
recently approved local planning and decision-making will
be controlling.
The Federal Government will assist with important
technological development, yet it should be clearly
understood that the chief objective of the Department
of Transportation grant programs is to help cities solve
their transportation problems. It is not a program
primarily aimed at the restructuring and rebuilding of
our cities in America.
Federal assistance, as I see it, must be primarily
directed at finding cost-efficient solutions to the problem
of moving people. It must only secondarily be viewed as a
means to stimulate urban area economic growth, or to
increase central city density.
Federal taxpayers just can't afford to pay for
the whole package, and I won't ask them to do SO.
Washington, obviously, has to help with the
funding, but that funding must have realistic restraints.
This is especially true as the Congress, Members of the
House and the Senate, join with the White House as
inflation fighters in a policy of fiscal responsibility.
Investments in local mass transit systems must have
reasonable cost to benefit ratios or relationships. The
House passed Federal Mass Transit Act of 1974 proposes
an $11 billion spread over a 6-year period and I add
emphatically, an absolute upper dollar limit.
In addition, I have a problem with the program
structure in the House bill and its treatment of Federal
operating assistance for public transit. A committee
of the Senate will be considering a transit bill
whose program structure is similar to the Administra-
tion's transit proposal. I am confident that this problem,
or this conflict between the House and Senate versions
can be overcome in a House and Senate conference.
MORE
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
Page 7
It is probably known to many here, I have
opposed in the past transit operating subsidies, par-
ticularly out of the highway trust fund, because of my
strong belief that such a program would lead to the Federal
Government in the local day-to-day transit operating
matters. And also, I have learned, from my experience
with other Federal categorical grant programs for
operating expenses, that these funds often do not
result in better or more service. Instead, they simply
result in greater cost and less efficiency.
It is my conclusion, however, that our
current inflexible urban mass transit grant program
encourages States, encourages cities to adopt what you
can call capital intensive solutions, such as subways,
as a response to their transportation problems.
Accordingly, as a compromise for my own long,
deeply held previous convictions, I am supporting some
limited Federal operating assistance such as the proposal
I mentioned a few moments ago, submitted in February
and currently being considered by the Senate.
I recognize that this change will allow a limited
portion of Federal urban transit funds to be used for
operating expenses as an integral part of a comprehensive
transit program and as a result, primarily of decisions
by local and State officials.
The key here, therefore, is that Federal
officials are not involved in the capital operating trade-
off. Local officials will make that decision.
And although, the operating assistance provisions
of the House bill do not meet these standards, the Senate
will have, and I hope does, correct this deficiency and
I trust the final version will contain that specific
provision.
I am convinced that with enough imagination,
with enough determination, with enough flexibility and
with careful ordering of your local priorities, we
can achieve our national transportation goals. I am
determined to do so without further feeding the fires
of inflation or busting the Federal budget.
Let me leave you with one final thought. From
the early days of this Nation, we have been a mobile
people. We have carved canals out of the countryside
to carry our commerce. We journeyed West following the
only roadmaps we knew, the wagon ruts of those who had
gone before.
MORE
FORD & LIBRARY SERALD
Page 8
Today, with modern methods of movement, we have
achieved miracles of mobility in America and in many, many
parts of the world. But we have to maintain and expand
the avenues of movement for all Americans, young and old,
rich and poor.
The wheels of this Nation cannot stop turning,
whether they are on cars, or trucks, or buses, or
trains, or planes. If we are to continue to be a great
Nation, and I think we will, as Americans we must move
forward together in the future.
With your dedicated, inspired efforts here this
week, I think you can contribute very significantly
to make this journey a memorable one in the years
ahead.
Thank you very much.
END
(AT 11:58 A.M. EDT)
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD