The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA, ) 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.
The act was signed into law on December 18, 1991, by President George H. W. Bush and codified as and .
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 (MPOs).
ISTEA also provided funds for the conversion of dormant railroad corridors into rail trails; the first rail trail to be funded was the Cedar Lake Regional Rail Trail, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The bill was preceded by the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act in 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, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) in 2012, the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST) in 2015, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021.
High priority corridors
Section 1105 of the act also defines a number of High Priority Corridors, to be part of the National Highway System. After various amendments in subsequent transportation bills and other legislation, this is a list of the corridors:
{| class="wikitable"
|+ List of High Priority Corridors
|See corridor 45
|-
|11<!--§§1105(c)(11) and (f)(9)-->
|Appalachian Regional Corridor V
|From Interstate 55 in northern Mississippi in the west to Interstate 24 in East Tennessee
|Route is from Batesville, Mississippi, and via Tupelo, Mississippi, Russellville, Alabama, and Huntsville, Alabama, ending just west of Chattanooga, Tennessee
|-
|83
|Sonoran Corridor (State Rte. 410)
|A new highway from Interstate 19 to Interstate 10 south of Tucson International Airport, Arizona
|law designates highway as a future Interstate highway (route number not specified in law)
|-
|84
|Central Texas Corridor
|Two routes from Interstate 10 (Pecos County) and Interstate 20 (Midland–Odessa), joining in Brady and continuing east to the Sabine River, passing in or near Fort Hood; College Station; Huntsville; and Livingston; all in Texas (paragraphs A–C)
Also designates spurs from I-14 North in Eden to I-10 near Junction following U.S. 83 (paragraph D), from I-14 in Woodville to I-10 in Beaumont via U.S. 69 (paragraph E), from I-14 in Jasper to I-10 in Beaumont via U.S. 96 (paragraph F), and from I-20 in Odessa to I-10 in Pecos County via U.S. 385, RM 305, and U.S. 190 (paragraph G).
|FAST mandates that route be Interstate 14; IIJA designates Bryan–College Station loop as Interstate 214, the spur from Brady to I-10 as Interstate 14 South, and the spur from Brady to I-20 as Interstate 14 North. Routes in paragraphs D–G are designated as future Interstate highways (route number not specified in law)
See also corridors 93 and 99–102
|-
|85
|Interstate 81
|From Interstate 86 to the Canada–United States border
|-
|86<!--§1105(c)(86)-->
|Interstate 70 from Salt Lake City, Utah to Denver, Colorado
|
|-
|88<!--§1105(c)(88)-->
|Interstate 205
|Interstate 205 in Oregon
|-
|89<!--§§1105(c)(89), (e)(5)(A), and (e)(5)(C)(i)-->
|I-57 Corridor Extension
|Extending Interstate 57 from its southern terminus at I-55 in southeastern Missouri to I-40 in North Little Rock, Arkansas
|ISTEA mandates that route be Interstate 57
|-
|90<!--§§1105(c)(90), (e)(5)(A), and (e)(5)(C)(i)-->
|Pennyrile Parkway
|From Interstate 69 near Nortonville, Kentucky in the north, to Interstate 24 south of Hopkinsville, Kentucky
|ISTEA mandates that route be Interstate 169
|-
|91<!--§§1105(c)(91), (e)(5)(A), and (e)(5)(C)(i)-->
|Western Kentucky Parkway
|The portion of the Western Kentucky Parkway between Interstate 69 in the west (near Nortonville, Kentucky) to Interstate 165 (formerly the William H. Natcher Parkway) in the east
|ISTEA mandates that route be Interstate 569
|-
|92
|
|U.S. 421 from I-85 in Greensboro to I-95 in Dunn, North Carolina
|IIJA designates as future Interstate highway (route number not specified in law)
|-
|93
|South Mississippi Corridor
|U.S. 84 from Natchez to Laurel, Mississippi, I-59 from Laurel to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and U.S. 49 and MS 601 from Hattiesburg to Gulfport, Mississippi
|Largely identical to Central Mississippi Corridor (Corridor 100). IIJA designates the U.S. 84 and I-59 portions as a future Interstate highway (indirectly mandating it to be I-14); see also Corridor 94
|-
|94
|Kosciusko to Gulf Coast Corridor
|Starting at I-55 near Vaiden, Mississippi, running south and passing east of the vicinity of the Jackson Urbanized Area, connecting to U.S. 49 north of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and generally following U.S. 49 to I-10 near Gulfport, Mississippi.
|Overlaps with corridors 93 and 100 south of Hattiesburg; IIJA designates as future Interstate highway (route number not specified in law)
|-
|95
|Interstate 22 Spur
|U.S. 45 from I-22 in Tupelo south to near Shannon, Mississippi.
|IIJA designates as future Interstate highway (route number not specified in law)
|-
|96
|
|U.S. 412 from I-35 in Noble County, Oklahoma via Tulsa, to its intersection with I-49 in Springdale, Arkansas
|IIJA designates as future Interstate highway (route number not specified in law)
|-
|97
|Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Expressway (sic)
|Cumberland Parkway from I-65 in Barren County to U.S. 27 in Somerset, Kentucky
|Part of the cancelled East-West Transamerica Corridor route (Corridor 3); IIJA mandates this route be Interstate 365
|-
|98
|
|MS 7 from I-55 in Grenada via Oxford to I-22 in Holly Springs, Mississippi
|
|-
|99
|Central Louisiana Corridor
|From the Sabine River, follows LA 8 and LA 28 to Alexandria, continuing east to join U.S. 84 and cross the Mississippi River near Natchez, Mississippi
|IIJA mandates this route be Interstate 14
See corridors 84, 93, and 100–102
|-
|100
|Central Mississippi Corridor
|U.S. 84 east from Natchez to Laurel, Mississippi, then follows I-59 northeast through Meridian to the Mississippi–Alabama state line near Cuba, Alabama;
also includes a spur following I-59 south to Hattiesburg, then U.S. 49 and proposed MS 601 to Gulfport
|IIJA mandates the route from Natchez to the Alabama state line be Interstate 14
See corridors 84, 93, 99, and 101–102
|-
|101
|Middle Alabama Corridor
|U.S. 80 east from I-20/59 near Cuba to Montgomery, then follows the partially-completed Montgomery Outer Loop (AL 108) to I-85, continuing east from Tuskegee via either U.S. 80 or I-85 and U.S. 280 to the Alabama–Georgia border in Phenix City
|IIJA mandates this route be Interstate 14
See corridors 84, 93, 99–100, and 102
|-
|102
|Middle Georgia Corridor
|Fall Line Freeway (GA 540) from Columbus via Warner Robins and Macon to Augusta, Georgia
|IIJA mandates this route be Interstate 14
See corridors 84, 93, and 99–101
|}
High-speed rail corridors
thumb|right|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.
- 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.
There was not significant funding attached to these announcements: $30 million had been allocated to several states by 1997 to improve grade crossings, 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 until $8 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was distributed in January 2010.
Jeff Morales one of the principal drafters of this bill, served 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, from 2012 to 2017.
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.
Notes
References
External links
- Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 as amended (PDF/details) in the GPO Statute Compilations collection
- Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 as enacted (details) in the US Statutes at Large
- on Congress.gov
- on Congress.gov
- A Guide to Metropolitan Transportation Planning Under ISTEA - How the Pieces Fit Together (USDOT)