Transportation Infrastructure Reform

[Sean McAndrews]

https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Americas-Transportat...

 

Richard Geddes, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, discusses the need for reform in America’s transportation infrastructure. He describes the current situation for our infrastructure: lack of funding for roads, bridges, etc.; outdated infrastructure, and crippling traffic in urban centers. Geddes discusses potential policy areas where reform is needed and focuses his attention on 1) the funding and financing for infrastructure and 2) the need for transportation and technology policy.

 

Funding is a major problem for the US’ infrastructure. Currently, the main source of revenue comes from taxes on fossil fuels. A tax that has not increased since 1993 and is levied on cents-per-gallon basis with no adjustment for inflation. This tax is responsible for 90% of the federal Highway Trust Fund’s and +50% of highway spending at all levels of government. This is a problem because of a few factors. First, inflation increases cost for infrastructure production and the fact that this tax was created in 1993, is a problem. Geddes brings up the fact that every year, cars are becoming more and more fuel efficient which would require less imported oil, in turn reducing revenue for building infrastructure. Because of these issues, Geddes suggests changing the current financing to be paid by those who use it—meaning user fees and tolls. He also advocates for greater private participation in project delivery with the use of contracts. He argues that this will expedite the project time as well as improve the overall maintenance of the roads if specified in a contract.

 

The other issue facing our infrastructure today is outdated technology and transportation policy. Because of the extremely fast paced development of technology, current policies are becoming outdated. The technology that Geddes focuses on the most is the emergence of the autonomous car with self-driving, self-parking, self-etc. technologies that are out in the market. He believes that the emergence of the self-driving car will be a major improvement to both the environment as well as safety. He argues that simple changes need to made to already existing policies rather than entire new policies. Interestingly, Geddes brought up several other improvements to our roads: new line paints, proper drainage, keeping trees away from signage, and encourage drivers to switch to an autonomous car. “Such incentives may be necessary given drivers’ natural reluctance to relinquish vehicle controls.”

 

I think that Geddes brought up excellent points regarding the future of our highway system. He mentions that the purpose for policy should be public utility. I disagree with Geddes on the issue of transportation funding and financing. I think it would be unfair to charge just the drivers who are on the roads because they are not the only ones that benefit from them. All of society benefits from the roads (think of imports and exports, distribution, busses, national defense, and many more). I think a better way would be to change the current tax to adjust to inflation on a yearly basis and then think of other ways that the government could get the funding for infrastructure (i.e. taxes on the consumer or producer when purchasing a vehicle rather than constant tolls). Though I hate the idea of autonomous cars, I do believe that is the future of the car and that we should be proactive to prepare for self-driving cars on the roads and I agree with him on his technology and transportation policy reform ideas. I think that his public utility approach to policy is one that will be the most effective when dealing with reform.