Here is an excerpt with a PBS interview with Rep. Mica (FL) from late June 2009:
BLUEPRINT AMERICA: You are a Republican – and you support transportation and infrastructure spending?
REP. MICA: Well, I tell you though, if you’re on the Transportation Committee long enough, even if you’re a fiscal conservative, which I consider myself to be, you quickly see the benefits of transportation investment. Simply, I became a mass transit fan because it’s so much more cost effective than building a highway. Also, it’s good for energy, it’s good for the environment – and that’s why I like it.
BLUEPRINT AMERICA: If anything, you’d say that your time in Congress and on the Transportation Committee has brought you around to these ideas?
REP. MICA: Yes. And, seeing the cost of one person in one car. The cost for construction. The cost for the environment. The cost for energy. You can pretty quickly be convinced that there’s got to be a more cost effective way. It’s going to take a little time, but we have to have good projects, they have to make sense – whether it’s high-speed rail or commuter rail or light rail. We got to have some alternatives helping people – even in the rural areas – to get around.
Link to full interview with Rep. Mica (FL) with PBS
Governor Schwarzenegger participated in a debate earlier this year in February at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington, DC. Schwarzenegger along with the other debaters to an extremely good job at articulating some of the underlying problems with American infrastructure and how it needs to change.
Here is a quick excerpt from the debate:
What Schawarzenegger brings up is true, as I can not think of any fully developed country that does not have access to high speed rail except the USA. And having our infrastructure being almost fully dependent on automobile transit is more similar to that of a developing country than a country that is fully developed. In the full debate they do a great job at bring up the difficulties of developing a better and more intelligent infrastructure in America.
The entire debate can be seen on PBS’s website, linked below, its very informative and I recommend watching it. One of the debaters states that he judges if a community’s infrastructure is out of balance if you can’t walk to a public library. I believe the over development of suburbs to be a waste of space that actually hinders the development of integrated and productive communities. But what ever your beliefs you would probably just find it interesting in seeing some of America’s leaders address the important issues of infrastructure.
Link to PBS’s website that has the National Governors Association Debate