Over the last several years, those of us living and working in Southern Missouri have heard a lot about transportation. Perhaps it was about the 15-year plan and whether or not it was well-funded; when our roads would finally be built; or whether or not bonding would be a good idea to modernize and improve the safety of our existing roads and bridges. Whatever the discussion, it is a topic that renders many opinions and a lot of concerns about how to do what is best for every region of the state – especially rural areas.

 

Over the years, there has been a growing discussion among state leaders and organizations about the "lack" of voice that rural Missourians have had in the statewide transportation planning process. After all, rural Missourians, like their urban neighbors, use the roads to get goods to market, to drive their children to school and to get back and forth to work each day. Too many times, our larger cities have had the upper hand in the transportation planning process. Their needs end up at the top of the priority list and the needs of rural Missouri fall closer to the bottom.

 

Missouri wasn't the only state whose rural areas were experiencing this problem, but little if anything had been done to improve the situation. Even more disturbing was that in 1991, the federal government had allowed metropolitan planning organizations and urban elected officials to develop priorities and plans for transportation, but had not provided rural areas with equal input. While working on the 1998 highway bill, my rural colleague Representative Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and I started talking about how many of our localities weren't included in discussions involving the use of our transportation dollars, we decided to take steps to level the playing field.

 

With the completion of the highway bill in 1998, we entered a new era in transportation for rural America. That new era brought an increased amount of federal dollars to Missouri and a closer dollar to dollar return on monies paid into the Federal Highway Trust Fund. In addition to providing significantly more federal funds to help improve the infrastructure and services of rural America, the highway bill also included a provision championed by Ney and me which strengthened the role and participation of rural elected officials and made us full partners in statewide transportation planning.

The legislation was a significant victory for rural America. Though wrangling on many levels initially hampered immediate implementation of the rural plan, in January 2003, the wrangling finally came to an end. After five long years, the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a final rural planning rule requiring the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) to implement our program.

 

Now, elected officials from all over the Eighth Congressional District will finally have a seat at the table in discussions about Missouri's transportation future. The plans for how to accomplish this process are put into place by each state and a state will have one year and 30 days to document and implement its own consultation process. In Missouri, MODOT also must review and solicit comments about this process and make modifications, to ensure that a plan is effective for the transportation needs of all within the state.

 

The rural planning rule certainly won't solve all of the woes that are causing congestion in Missouri's highway transportation plans. Accomplishing that goal will require tenacity, trust and true leadership. But, the rule will ensure we have a louder voice in decisions about our roads, bridges, rural transit systems and other transportation infrastructure issues in Missouri. As a rural region whose voice has been drowned out for too long, the victory is a good step toward a more level playing field in the transportation planning process.