“We’re affected in so many ways by the failure to repair our bridges, our roads, our highways, and our water systems. It goes to the very quality of life that we have.  People who sit in congested traffic lose as much as an hour and a half a day sitting in traffic in cars that are idling, polluting the environment when they could be doing something valuable with their time, like being at home playing with their kids. This is a quality of life issue.”

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (D) (BAF co-chair)

"Transportation is not an end in and of itself but it should be a tool to enhance quality of life for people. We need adequate investment in a range of transportation options so that people are not spending 90 minutes a day or two hours a day stuck in their cars, away from their family, sitting in traffic and angry about it."

Nick Turner, Rockefeller Foundation

Few things make a larger impact on the quality of life for average Americans than the quality of infrastructure in their communities.

When highways are underfunded, mothers and fathers waste too much time stuck in traffic rather than spending time with their children.

• FACT: On average, 30% of workers now leave their home counties to commute to work compared to less than 24% in 1990 (Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce).
• FACT: Americans annually lose a total of 4.2 billion hours in traffic congestion, wasting 2.9 billion gallons of fuel and $78.2 billion each year – equal to 105 million weeks of vacation and 58 fully-loaded supertankers (Source: Texas Transportation Institute).
• FACT: Nearly 51 percent of U.S. urban interstates are now congested. The ten worst states are: LA, FL, MI, MA, CA, NY, NH, HI, RI, AK and NJ (Source: Reason Foundation).

When airports are underfunded, travelers get stuck at airports hundreds of miles from their homes instead of sitting around the fireplace in their family rooms.

• FACT: 26 percent of commercial flights in the U.S. arrive late or get cancelled (Source: Department of Transportation).
• FACT: Without the needed improvements to the aviation system, delays will increase 62 percent by 2014 (Source Federal Aviation Administration).

When water infrastructure is underfunded, a simple activity like drinking a glass of tap water becomes treacherous.

• FACT: $151 billion to $390 billion is needed respectively every year over the next 20 years to repair obsolete drinking water and wastewater systems (Source: Environmental Protection Agency).
• FACT: Each year 850 billion gallons of sewage overflows due to broken or obsolete wastewater systems (Source: Environmental Protection Agency).
• FACT: America's drinking water systems face an annual shortfall of at least $11 billion to replace aging facilities - this does not account for any growth in demand over the next 20 years (Source: American Society of Civil Engineers).

When transportation options are limited, the working poor bear the brunt of the burden.

• FACT: In 2001, the working poor spent nearly 10 percent of their income getting to and from work. This compares to over 2 percent for those earning $45,000 or more annually, and 3.9 percent for all working Americans (Source: Surface Transportation Policy Project).
• FACT: From 2000-2005, average American salaries went up 10.3 percent, transportation costs went up 13.4% (Source: Center for Housing Policy).
• FACT: Public transit users save more than $9,500 per year by taking public transportation instead of driving (Source: American Public Transportation Association).