Airport Commission hosts luncheon

Dr. Steve Van Beeks speaks at the Columbian Metropolitan Airport Commission luncheon. The Columbia Metropolitan Airport Commission was the host for lunch on Monday, September 15, at Sterling Hall, 320 Senate Street. The keynote speaker was Dr. Steve Van Beek, president and CEO, Eno Transportation Foundation.

The Eno Transportation Foundation was established in 1921 by traffic control pioneer William Phelps Eno to promote the safe and efficient mobility of American society, as Van Beek's handout put it. Before joining Eno, Van Beek was chair of the Federal Practices Group and director for Jacobs Consultancy, an aviation management consulting firm. Although he lives with his family in Northern Virginia, Van Beek serves on the Board of Directors and teaches for the University of Denver's Intermodal Transportation Institute.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer introduced Dr. Van Beek.

Van Beek opened his presentation with a Letterman- style top 10 important aviation developments to watch: (10) The Ground (Surface Transportation); (9) What is Southwest doing?; (8) B787 and A380 (new jets by Boeing and Airbus); (7) Federal Aviation Authority's Reauthorization/Air Traffic Modernization; (6) Climate Change; (5) Small Community Air Service; (4) Airline Restructuring/Consolidation; (3) Price of Oil/Jet Fuel; (2) State of the Economy; (1) The Unexpected.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer introduces Dr. Steve Van Beeks. Where the country is headed in transportation, Van Beek said, is dependent on heightened public awareness, enough to pressure Congress for a replenished highway trust fund and a meaningful transportation bill. Amtrak, for instance, has no projected support. It goes month to month.

In another few months, the country will have a new president and a new Congress. Besides a new transportation bill, a new climate change conference is coming to pick up where Kyoto left off.

Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objective of reducing greenhouse gases to theoretically prevent anthropogenic climate change.

Kyoto expires in 2012, and Copenhagen (December 2009), the next conference on global climate change, could succeed where Kyoto failed. The U.S. signed but never ratified Kyoto. There can be no real climate policy shift without a change in transportation policy. The overwhelming majority of emissions that carry a climate change impact come from transportation.

Money is always a problem, but now it's more of a problem because the transportation infrastructure money comes from gasoline taxes. Americans are driving less and buying less gasoline, so the tax take is less.

When the new federal transportation bill is passed, there is likely to be more of a local match requirement than before, so cities and states without the dedicated income streams already in place are not likely to get much help from the federal government. Columbia's bus system, for example, has an uncertain local subsidy and no long- term income stream in the works.

Compared to the aviation hub cities, both large and small, which saw air traffic drop by 10 percent in the last year, Columbia is doing almost all right. Columbia saw its air traffic drop in the past year by only 2 percent.

To help finance improvements at the Columbia airport and similar facilities elsewhere, the passenger facility charge needs to go from the current $4.50 per passenger to $7.00.

Van Beek had worse news on the surface transportation front. National surface transportation needs for the next 50 years appear to require $225 billion per year for the full 50 years. The country is spending only 40 percent of that level. Just for updating deficient bridges, it would cost about $10 billion a year for the next 20 years.

Of America's 600,000 bridges, 12 percent are deficient. And in South Carolina, that means there are 105 structurally deficient bridges. Van Beek showed a map of S.C. on the large screen. He had the deficient bridges identified, warning a Minneapolis- class bridge failure, a disaster, was possible at each bridge.

This meeting was sponsored by the aviation interests. Both LPA and Wilbur Smith Associates helped with the cost. No one knew of a similar function planned for the bus system.