Jon Martz serves on the Executive Committee of the Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT), and on the ACT Board of Directors as Immediate Past President and as Chair of the ACT Public Policy Council. He is an active member of several other transportation associations, including APTA, CTAA, ITE and ASCE.
Martz is Vice President of Government Relations for VPSI, Inc., the nation's largest provider of commuter vanpool services. He manages relationships with federal, state and local government organizations, as well as trade and industry groups. As a registered lobbyist, he also advocates for transportation legislation and safety regulations at both the federal and state levels. Prior to this role, Martz led the business development efforts for VPSI as Vice President of Marketing.
In the mid-80s, Martz was Director of Research at the FTA/FHWA/TXDOT Joint Center for Urban Mobility Research at Rice Center in Houston, Tex. His work focused on the innovative financing of the highway infrastructure and the make/buy cost analysis of public-private partnerships in public transportation. He was one of four FTA-funded "traveling instructors" of cost analysis techniques for public transit agencies.
Martz started his career as a transportation planner for the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission in Dayton, Ohio, where he was responsible for air quality and energy contingency planning, and the management of the regional ridesharing program.
Of particular note, Martz recently served on the 75-member Blue Ribbon Panel of Experts selected to support the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, the 12-member body appointed by Congress to study the needs of the U.S. surface transportation system for the next 30 years.
Martz holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.
Such an open-ended question is very difficult to answer, as the perspective on costs and benefits differs based on the goal you are trying to achieve. ACT generally answers this question with a focus on providing the most mobility options for the most people and goods with the least overall cost. However, data capturing those full costs and full benefits is sparse, as much of the collection would depend on individual surveying at each point in a decision tree around which trip people choose to take (or do not choose to take) and by which method or mode. However, we can look… Read more
I think that this question assumes that the only infrastructure projects in question are major projects. There are thousands of smaller scale projects across the country that can, and do, benefit from private investment but that are ignored in the larger conversation around infrastructure financing. Transit Oriented Development (or TOD) is one example of what could be considered private investment in infrastructure, especially where it is a private developer that is financing the construction project for the commercial revenues and the transit service and amenities are built into the project. These projects are working across the country to increase the… Read more
The Association for Commuter Transportation is an avid supporter of federal legislation to promote the concept of livability and believe that more should to be done to involve land use planning within our transportation plans. But what must not be lost in this debate is the need to provide a concept of "livability" to those who live areas that are not adequately serviced by traditional bus and rail transit. People who live away from urban/city centers either live there out of choice or economic necessity. These Americans should be afforded a 'livable' commute. ACT believes that there are many ways to accomplish this. In… Read more
ACT believes that getting a transportation bill done quickly should be a national priority. When you consider that much of the success of the stimulus bill has been a result of the transportation spending, it is obvious why many lawmakers want to pass a new bill soon: transportation spending = jobs. However, the rush to get a bill done should not overpower the need to get the right bill done. Raising the gas tax or any other revenue-raising measure will be a politically sensitive subject, as we have not proven the effectiveness and need for increased transportation revenue to the… Read more
During the debate that preceded the creation of SAFETEA-LU, there was a great deal of policy debate and discussion. In fact, the original draft of TEA-LU included a number of sections dedicated to refocusing the federal government's role in addressing congestion. As time wore on, the question most members became most concerned with was, "how much is my state going to receive through the formulas, and how many of my projects am I going to get?" As a result, it's my belief that many of the needed policy changes that should have been included were ultimately dropped. The focus shifted from… Read more
While there may be some (limited) room for argument over the amount of necessary carbon reduction by sector, the indisputable fact remains that carbon emissions as a whole need to be reduced including those from the transportation sector. All options, from VMT reductions to trip avoidance techniques to land use policies to improved vehicle technologies and fuels to capacity expansion, need to be on the table and available to meet the local mix of barriers and opportunities. There is no simple “one size fits all” answer to this issue. When coupled with the issue of transportation infrastructure funding, it becomes doubly important… Read more
Many of the posters this week have danced around a central premise of the question that needs to be called out: there is a set of national transportation objectives that include a reduction in transportation emissions. We have yet to create a set of national transportation objectives around which we design a national transportation revenue stream or funding stream. ACT has consistently stated that whether transportation funding is $250 billion or $500 billion that it needs to be prioritized based on those national objectives. From that point, a cogent scheme of incentives and disincentives can be put in place that generate adequate… Read more
The Association for Commuter Transportation begins to answer this question by recognizing the basic assertion that federal transportation policy should be set based upon a series of desired outcomes. I think it is important to note that the discussion has shifted here from “should there be goals” to “which goals should there be”. With that, it is important to recognize a goal of reducing vehicle miles traveled for what it is: a measurement of how well we are managing the capacity of our transportation system, not a reduction in the mobility of individuals. Where this has worked well with our membership is with the (oft-mentioned here)… Read more
While the discussion to this question has been both thoughtful and emotional, the main point of the discussion continues to be the value of continued monetization of transportation infrastructure. While the value and costs of major infrastructure needs to be captured in a way that helps return and perpetuate the national investment, it is only one part of the public-private partnership world. ACT’s membership is comprised of another part of the universe of PPPs: the partnership between employers, employees, and the public sector to provide commuting alternatives. PPPs on this sort of small scale can have real impacts on the levels of congestion… Read more
As others have more eloquently stated, we’re not there yet. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t opportunities for progress… As I was in DC last week, I was struck by the willingness on the part of Hill staffers to put forward that performance measures were going to be a part of the next authorization. I believe that this is a prime opportunity to move further down the road (pardon the pun) towards the level of intermodalism many of us here have recognized as being necessary. The key, of course, lies in which performance measures are selected. ACT members are… Read more
I am turning over my “expert” responsibilities to Chris Simmons, chair of ACT’s Next Authorization Task Force and a former state DOT employee, to respond to this week’s question: I am going to start with an “Amen!” to the anonymous Hill staffer who posted through Lisa. I could not agree more with his statements and agree more than wholeheartedly with his assessment of state DOT work. I believe, as the staffer does, that there is a cadre of folks who are interested in government service of this type. However, as long as the structure of these state DOTs rewards service… Read more
I also echo the thanks of others to the Commissioners for the difficult work they undertook and the willingness to bring forward new solutions to the issue. I think that the most encouraging sentiment of the report was that there is no silver bullet to solving transportation finance, and we need to be willing to eliminate the previous arguments and start from a new perspective. With that new perspective, however, certain questions remain. I have the following questions of the Commissioners: 1. A VMT financing mechanism, as proposed in the report, would indirectly promote maintaining and increasing VMT (even with inflation… Read more
The discussion on the blog this week has been relatively unanimous: all funding options for transportation should be on the table, and that includes exploring the options for a VMT financing scheme (to remove the monikers of “tax” or “fee”). From the aviation community, to the research community, to the environmentalists and road builders, the unanimous cry has been to look at more than the gas tax. What this conversation leaves behind, however, may be more telling than what it includes. It has not discussed a funding stream that incorporates a concept of accruing benefits. The fundamental issue with the gas tax, and collaterally… Read more
As the National Commission stated, in the short term we are going to have to rely on an increased gas tax to meet our basic needs within this next authorization. That funding could be supplemented with general funds in the short term, but that is a stopgap measure. The political reality of the situation doesn’t allow for much more than that, even with a delay in the next authorization. However, that does not mean that the next authorization cannot create the environment by which we transition the funding of the transportation system. To restate a point made by Mr. Gribbin, we need to… Read more
Mr. Schenendorf set the appropriate tone for this conversation when he said, “there are a myriad of DOT programs, about 108 Federal surface transportation programs alone. Most of these programs were designed to address important transportation needs and have served us well in the past. But collectively they are not up to the challenges that face us today.” It is not a simple issue of which program to keep and which program should go, but rather a need to re-vision the overall federal programmatic structure to meet a new set of desired federal outcomes. This need to set a new… Read more
Congress and the new Administration have a monumental task in front of them. Not only do they need to pass a stimulus package that moves our economy forward quickly, but they also must deal with the longer-term issues of transportation, energy, and the environment as they relate to the next transportation authorization package. ACT applauds the House’s efforts to take advantage of authorized programs to appropriate energy and environmental improvements in the stimulus, especially for those improvements with a nexus to transportation. Specifically, ACT would encourage the use of the energy and environment block grant program authorized last year as a method… Read more
When gas was $4 a gallon, there was a great deal of pressure on Congress to act and provide relief to commuters struggling with the high price of gas. While Congress worked out their differences in responding to those struggles, transportation demand management programs nationwide got Americans into transit and alternative commute programs. Now that gas has fallen below $2 a gallon, pressure on Congress to act and provide commuters with relief has subsided; however, the need is still great. The rapid fluctuation in gas prices is something that we can expect for years to come. As long the United… Read more
One of the primary challenges Secretary-designate LaHood faces is a transition in mission and focus of the Department of Transportation and each of its modal agencies. Over the past sixty years, DOT has focused on the establishment of a 'national' infrastructure. This has led to the building of the national highway system, expansion of our air transport capabilities, and the birth of public transportation systems. In short, the focus of the Department of Transportation has been capital expansion. With a national transportation system established, the Department of Transportation must begin to shift its focus and efforts towards the user of the transportation system. These efforts include… Read more
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