U.S. Reps. Blake Moore (R-UT) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA) introduced legislation recently that would provide more federal support for transportation infrastructure in medium-sized cities.
The legislation, the Medium Transit Intensive Cities (MTIC) Authorization Act, would create a new Medium Transit Intensive Cities category with the transit funding program. That program would be modeled after the Small Transit Intensive Cities (STIC) formula, but would be designed for medium-sized urban areas with between 200,000 and 99,999 residents.
“Existing transit programs often favor either small or large cities, overlooking medium-sized cities such as Ogden and Layton in Northern Utah,” Moore said. “By creating a federal set-aside to reward high-performing transit agencies operating in medium-sized cities, we can ensure that transit agencies are able to meet citizens’ needs and make the long-term investments necessary to support growing populations.”
While medium-sized urban areas often provide transit service comparable in quality and intensity to large metropolitan systems, the current federal funding formula does not adequately recognize their performance.
“Many medium-sized cities on the Central Coast and across the country have strong transit systems that people depend on to get to work, school, and to stay connected with their communities,” Carbajal said. “But the current federal transit funding framework isn’t adequate for these communities, leaving too many of them without the support they need.”
Under current law, transit agencies in medium-sized regions must compete with large urban areas with populations over one million. Even high-performing medium-sized transit systems are at a structural disadvantage in this system, the lawmakers said. The MTIC program would dedicate 1.5 percent of Section 5307 funding to reward transit agencies in mid-sized regions that meet or exceed performance benchmarks.