Transit Legislation Provisions

The five-year, $123-billion transportation bill approved by the Senate on Wednesday would:

* Provide $45 billion for a Surface Transportation Program. For the first time, states could spend most of it on mass transit instead of highways. But 17.5% would have to go for a National Highway System proposed by President Bush, consisting of 42,800 miles of existing interstate highways and 141,000 miles of primary arterial roads.

* Give an $8.2-billion bonus to 42 states, including one group that pays more in federal gasoline taxes than it receives in highway funds, and another group that has relatively high state gasoline taxes and low per capita incomes.

* Authorize $21.4 billion to complete and maintain the interstate system.

* Provide $21 billion for mass transit.

* Authorize $13.3 billion for the repair and replacement of bridges.

* Create a $5-billion program to reduce congestion and improve air quality.

* Provide $750 million to develop high-speed, magnetically levitated trains.

* Require states that lack both seat belt laws and motorcycle helmet laws by Oct. 1, 1993, to spend 3% of their highway funds on safety activities.

* Use non-highway recreational fuel taxes for a $285-million system of recreational trails.

* Help states adopt traffic management technology to reduce tie-ups, including a “smart car” system to alert drivers to congestion hot spots.

* Restrict the use of truck tractors with two or more trailers or semitrailers with gross vehicle weight of more than 80,000 pounds on interstate highways to those states where they are currently allowed.