The Clinton administration today announced a program to reduce traffic congestion that would include giving employers tax incentives they can pass along to workers who use mass transit.
The administration also wants to establish a national "N11" line, a second hotline like 911 that would not be used for life-threatening situations but to provide drivers with immediate transportation and traveler information, such as road conditions and bus schedules.
Vice President Al Gore planned to offer details at a midday news conference attended by nearly 50 traffic reporters.
"A parent should not have to be saying good morning and good night to their child from a cell phone because they're stuck in traffic," Gore said in prepared remarks.
Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, who was participating in the announcement, also will lead four transportation summits across the country during the next year, according to one White House official.
The summits will be held in Atlanta, San Francisco, Detroit and Blue Springs, Mo., and will be co-hosted by the mayor in that community.
The announcements are part of the administration's $1 billion budget proposal to improve daily life in the United States. Gore has taken the lead on the agenda, which is aimed at developing "smart growth strategies" for communities plagued by dirty air, traffic congestion and suburban sprawl.
When the vice president first spoke of the package in January, he said economic growth depends on creating more "livable communities" and preserving open spaces. The proposals are aimed at addressing a growing concern among many Americans that unbridled growth is contributing to a decline in quality of life.
It is a theme that Gore has addressed in past speeches and likely will make an important part of his bid for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination.
In last November's elections, there were more than 200 local ballot measures most of them approved that involved concerns about lack of open space, congestion, the disappearance of farmland and unchecked development.
The tax incentives would implement provisions in last year's $203 billion national highway bill. They will expand an employer's ability to offer employees taxable and non-taxable transportation benefits, including parking, mass transit and vanpool benefits.
The idea of inviting traffic reporters to the announcement, being made in the Old Executive Building next to the White House itself, is modeled after an October 1997 event in which President Clinton invited some 100 weather forecasters to the White House to discuss global warming.
In both cases, the administration hopes that if it can get its message across to people who speak directly with the public every day, the ideas will get constant reinforcement in the mass media.
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