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mpacts of climate change will vary by region, it is certain they will be widespread and costly in human and economic terms, and will require significant changes in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation systems.

The committee identified five climate changes of particular importance to U.S. transportation; increases in very hot days and heat waves; increases in Arctic temperatures; rising sea levels; increases in intense precipitation events; and  increases in hurricane intensity.

increased intense precipitation could augment the severity of flooding

Seek to fund five projects that eliminate capacity constraints

10 high-speed rail corridors.

The high-speed rail corridors run along the East Coast and most of the West Coast, and form networks in the Northeast, Midwest and South, with each corridor extending 100 to 600 miles.Today’s intercity passenger rail services consume one-third less energy per passenger-mile than cars. Building high-speed rail lines on all the federally designated corridors could cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by 6 billion pounds per year.

The United States emits about 25 percent of the total global greenhouse gases.

Global mean surface temperatures have increased 0.74°C over the past 100 years. Eleven of the last 12 years (1995-2006) are among the warmest years recorded since 1850. The snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere and floating ice in the Arctic Ocean have decreased. Globally, sea level has risen 4-10 inches over the past century.

Sea level is likely to rise two feet along most of the U.S. coast.

The new single national standard will create a car and light truck fleet in the U.S. that is almost 40 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by 2016 than it is today,

"While the United States makes up less than 5 percent of the world's population, we create roughly a quarter of the world's demand for oil,"

By 2016, this would raise cars up to 39 miles per gallon and light trucks to 30 miles per gallon.

6.8 billion gallons of fuel wasted sitting in traffic.

Government transportation agencies are seeking out new, cheaper technology to replace the high-priced loop sensors and other invasive technologies that have been used in the pas