Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-240; ISTEA, pronounced Ice-Tea) is a United States federal law that posed a major change to transportation planning and policy, as the first U.S. federal legislation on the subject in the post-Interstate Highway System era.

Objective

The Act presented an overall intermodal approach to highway and transit funding with collaborative planning requirements, giving significant additional powers to metropolitan planning organizations. Signed into law on December 18, 1991 by President George H. W. Bush, it expired in 1997. It was preceded by the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987 and followed by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) in 1998, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) in 2005, and the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) in 2012. ISTEA also provided funds for non-motorized commuter trails; the first trail to be so funded was the Cedar Lake Regional trail that was built in 1995 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

High Priority Corridors

ISTEA defined a number of High Priority Corridors, to be part of the National Highway System. After various amendments from other laws, this is a list of the Corridors:

	Name	Location	Notes
Corridor 1	North-South Corridor	Kansas City, Missouri to Shreveport, Louisiana	Interstate 49
Corridor 2	Avenue of the Saints Corridor	St. Louis, Missouri to St. Paul, Minnesota
Corridor 3	East-West Transamerica Corridor	Hampton Roads, Virginia to southern Kansas
Corridor 4	Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor	Lafayette, Indiana to Toledo, Ohio
Corridor 5	I-73/74 North-South Corridor	Georgetown, South Carolina to Cincinnati, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Corridor 6	United States Route 80 Corridor	Meridian, Mississippi to Savannah, Georgia
Corridor 7	East-West Corridor	Memphis, Tennessee to Atlanta, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee
Corridor 8	Highway 412 East-West Corridor	Tulsa, Oklahoma to Nashville, Tennessee
Corridor 9	United States Route 220 and the Appalachian Thruway Corridor	Bedford, Pennsylvania to Corning, New York	Interstate 99
Corridor 10	Appalachian Regional Corridor X
Corridor 11	Appalachian Regional Corridor V
Corridor 12	United States Route 25E Corridor	Corbin, Kentucky to Morristown, Tennessee
Corridor 13	Raleigh-Norfolk Corridor	Raleigh, North Carolina to Norfolk, Virginia	Interstate 50
Corridor 14	Heartland Expressway	Denver, Colorado to Rapid City, South Dakota
Corridor 15	Urban Highway Corridor	M-59 in Michigan
Corridor 16	Economic Lifeline Corridor	I-15 and I-40 in California, Arizona, and Nevada
Corridor 17	Route 29 Corridor	Greensboro, North Carolina to Washington, D.C.
Corridor 18		Port Huron, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois, Corpus Christi, Texas and Victoria, Texas	Interstate 69
Corridor 19	United States Route 395 Corridor	Canadian border to Reno, Nevada
Corridor 20	United States Route 59 Corridor	Laredo, Texas to Texarkana, Texas	Interstate 69
Corridor 21	United States Route 219 Corridor	Buffalo, New York to Interstate 80
Corridor 22	Alameda Transportation Corridor	ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to Interstate 10
Corridor 23	Interstate Route 35 Corridor	Laredo, Texas to Duluth, Minnesota and the Canadian border (via Interstate 29)
Corridor 24	Dalton Highway	Deadhorse, Alaska to Fairbanks, Alaska
Corridor 25	State Route 168 (South Battlefield Boulevard)	Great Bridge, Virginia Bypass to the North Carolina state line
Corridor 26	CANAMEX Corridor	Nogales, Arizona to the Canadian border
Corridor 27	Camino Real Corridor	El Paso, Texas to the Canadian border
Corridor 28	Birmingham Northern Beltline	Birmingham, Alabama
Corridor 29	Coalfields Expressway	Beckley, West Virginia to Pound, Virginia
Corridor 30	Interstate Route 5	California, Oregon and Washington
Corridor 31	Mon-Fayette Expressway and Southern Beltway	Pennsylvania and West Virginia
Corridor 32	Wisconsin Development Corridor	Dubuque, Iowa to Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Corridor 33	Capital Gateway Corridor	Washington, D.C. to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Maryland	U.S. Route 50
Corridor 34	Alameda Corridor-East and Southwest Passage	East Los Angeles, California to Barstow, California and Coachella, California, and San Bernardino, California to Arizona
Corridor 35	Everett-Tacoma FAST Corridor	Everett, Washington to Tacoma, Washington
Corridor 36	New York and Pennsylvania State Route 17	Harriman, New York to I-90 in Pennsylvania	Interstate 86
Corridor 37	United States Route 90	Lafayette, Louisiana to New Orleans, Louisiana	Interstate 49
Corridor 38	Ports to Plains Corridor	Laredo, Texas to Denver, Colorado	Interstate 27 (Lubbock, TX to Amarillo, TX)
Corridor 39	United States Route 63	Marked Tree, Arkansas to Interstate 55	Interstate 555
Corridor 40	Greensboro Corridor	Danville, Virginia to Greensboro, North Carolina	Interstate 785
Corridor 41	Falls-to-Falls Corridor	International Falls, Minnesota to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Corridor 42		Batesville to Fulton, Mississippi	formed from portions of ADHS corridors V and X
Corridor 43	United States Route 95 Corridor	Eastport, Idaho to Oregon
Corridor 44	Louisiana Highway 1 Corridor	Grand Isle, Louisiana to U.S. Route 90
Corridor 45	United States Route 78 Corridor	Memphis, Tennessee to Birmingham, Alabama	Interstate 22
Corridor 46	Interstate Route 710	Long Beach, California to California State Route 60
Corridor 47	Interstate Route 87	Quebec to New York City
Corridor 48	Route 50 High Plains Corridor	Newton, Kansas to Pueblo, Colorado
Corridor 49	Atlantic Commerce Corridor	Jacksonville, Florida to Miami, Florida
Corridor 50	East-West Corridor	Watertown, New York to Calais, Maine
Corridor 51	SPIRIT Corridor	El Paso, Texas to Wichita, Kansas
Corridor 52		Swifton, Arkansas to Jonesboro, Arkansas
Corridor 53	United States Highway Route 6	Interstate 70 to Interstate 15
Corridor 54	California Farm-to-Market Corridor	south of Bakersfield, California to Sacramento, California
Corridor 55		Dallas, Texas to Memphis, Tennessee
Corridor 56	La Entrada al Pacifico Corridor	Lamesa, Texas to Presidio, Texas
Corridor 57	United States Route 41 corridor	Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Green Bay, Wisconsin	Interstate 41
Corridor 58	Theodore Roosevelt Expressway	Rapid City, South Dakota to Raymond, Montana
Corridor 59	Central North American Trade Corridor	border between North Dakota and South Dakota to the Canadian border
Corridor 60	Providence Beltline Corridor	Hope Valley, Rhode Island to Massachusetts
Corridor 61		various corridors in Missouri
Corridor 62	Georgia Developmental Highway System Corridors	various corridors in Georgia
Corridor 63	Liberty Corridor	various corridors in northern New Jersey
Corridor 64		various corridors in southern New Jersey
Corridor 65	Interstate Route 95 Corridor	Connecticut
Corridor 66	Interstate Route 91 Corridor	Connecticut
Corridor 67	Fairbanks-Yukon International Corridor	Canadian border to Fairbanks, Alaska
Corridor 68	Washoe County corridor	Reno, Nevada to Las Vegas, Nevada
Corridor 69	Cross Valley Connector	Interstate 5 to State Route 14, Santa Clarita Valley, California
Corridor 70	Economic Lifeline corridor	I-15, I-40 and other roads in California, Arizona and Nevada
Corridor 71	High Desert Corridor	Los Angeles, California to Las Vegas, Nevada
Corridor 72	North-South corridor	Kansas City, Missouri to Shreveport, Louisiana	Interstate 49
Corridor 73	Louisiana Highway corridor	Grand Isle, Louisiana to U.S. Route 90
Corridor 74		Lafayette, Louisiana to New Orleans, Louisiana	Interstate 49
Corridor 75	Louisiana 28 corridor	Fort Polk, Louisiana to Alexandria, Louisiana
Corridor 76		Toledo, Ohio to Cincinnati, Ohio
Corridor 77		Indiana to Toledo, Ohio
Corridor 78		Cincinnati, Ohio to Cleveland, Ohio
Corridor 79	Interstate Route 376	Monroeville, Pennsylvania to Sharon, Pennsylvania
Corridor 80	Intercounty Connector	Interstate 270 to Interstate 95/U.S. Route 1 in Maryland

High-speed rail corridors

The high-speed corridors designated under ISTEA closely correspond with grants given under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—seventeen years later.

The legislation also called for the designation of up to five high-speed rail corridors. The options were studied for several months, and announced in October 1992. The first four were announced by United States Secretary of Transportation Andrew Card, while the last was announced by Federal Railroad Administration head Gil Carmichael.^[1]

• October 15, 1992: The Midwest high-speed rail corridor with three links from Chicago, Illinois to Detroit, Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• October 16, 1992: The Florida high-speed rail corridor linking Miami with Orlando and Tampa.
• October 19, 1992: The California high-speed rail corridor linking San Diego and Los Angeles with the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento via the San Joaquin Valley.
• October 20, 1992: The Southeast high-speed rail corridor connecting Charlotte, North Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C..
• October 20, 1992: The Pacific Northwest high-speed rail corridor linking Eugene and Portland, Oregon with Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

However, there was not significant funding attached to these announcements: $30 million had been allocated to several states by 1997 to improve grade crossings,^[2] but that was a very tiny amount in comparison to the billions required for a true high-speed network. Aside from a few places in California and the Chicago–Detroit Line, most areas outside the Northeast Corridor continued to be limited to 79 mph (127 km/h) until $8 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was distributed in January 2010.^[3]

Jeff Morales one of the principal drafters of this bill, is currently serving as CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is currently constructing a high-speed rail line along the route originally proposed in this bill.^[4]

Airbags

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 also mandated that passenger automobiles and light trucks built after September 1, 1998 to have airbags installed as standard equipment for the driver and the right front passenger.^[5][6]

References

1. "Chronology of High-Speed Rail Corridors". Federal Railroad Administration, Department of Transportation. 7 July 2007. Archived from the original on 30 November 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
2. "High Speed Ground Transportation for America - CFS Report To Congress". Federal Railroad Administration. September 1997. Archived from the original on 25 August 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
3. Rosenberg, Zach (1 February 2010). "At Long Last, Clear Messages for High-Speed Rail". Wired Blogs. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
4. The Registry-San Francisco. "California High-Speed Rail Authority Hires World Recognized CEO".
5. Office of Research and Development (21 June 2001). "Air Bag Technology in Light Passenger Vehicles" (PDF). U.S. NHTSA. p. 1. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
6. "Sep 1, 1998: Federal legislation makes airbags mandatory". history.com. Retrieved 16 March 2014.

External links

• H.R.2950 (Public Law No: 102-240) - corridors are in section 1105
• A Guide to Metropolitan Transportation Planning Under ISTEA - How the Pieces Fit Together (USDOT)
• "FHWA - NHS High Priority Corridors". Federal Highway Administration - United States Department of Transportation. September 1996. Archived from the original on 10 April 2007. Retrieved 16 March 2014.