At least according to this far-sighted Transportation-Infrastructure Report (6 MB pdf):
Building America’s Future
Falling Apart and Falling Behind
Transportation Infrastructure Report 2011
www bafuture.org
[pg 16]
Lack of National Vision
In stark contrast to our most agile and aggressive foreign competitors, the U.S. stands increasingly alone in our failure to reorient our transportation spending according to a new forward-looking vision that could build a transportation network fit for a 21st-century economy. Without a similarly strategic plan of attack to create a state-of-the-art transportation network, the U.S. will be left far behind.
This striking lack of vision is a debilitating problem. Instead of taking a comprehensive look at the current weaknesses in our national network, we are largely following the same policy goals and guidelines announced when Eisenhower was president. As a result, federal transportation policy is skewed toward maintaining and expanding the Interstate Highway System. We’ve put relatively little emphasis on targeting our most economically strategic trade corridors or building new transport systems to meet our 21st-century economic needs.
[pg 16]
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There is no question that America must continue to provide adequate funding to ensure the efficiency and safety of our highways, roads, and bridges since they will always remain an important component of our transportation network. But despite the emphasis on our road system, we are not meeting the challenge. Congestion still predominates, especially in our metro areas, and the system has serious safety challenges. For example, America currently has more than 69,000 structurally deficient bridges, more than 11% of all the bridges in our country.[2]
Meanwhile, underinvestment in airports, in commuter and freight rail, and in ports costs us jobs, economic growth, and access to overseas markets. Compared to the significant sums dedicated to roads, government spending on other modes of transportation is relatively meager. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) spends about $10.2 billion a year on public transit, or less than a quarter of what it spends on highways. The federal government contributes even less to Amtrak’s operation costs.
[pg 17]
The problem is that we cannot build enough roads to meet our growing transportation needs. We’ve built enough new roads between 1988 and 2008 -- an additional 131,723 miles of roads -- to circle the globe more than five times.[3] But despite all of the resources expended on new highways, we haven’t fixed the roads and bridges that are falling apart, and we haven’t solved our congestion problems.
Merely expanding our already extensive highway system is not a plan for the future. We need a new national vision for building and maintaining an efficient transportation that meets the needs of a 21st-century economy.
[pg 38]
Adopt a Smart National Strategy
At other pivotal moments in our history, the nation’s government and business leaders devised blueprints to implement infrastructure plans that our economy needed. We need that kind of blueprint today to help us transition from Eisenhower’s highway plan of the 1950s to the high-tech transportation plan of the 21st century. The federal government should reassert its leadership and develop a plan for making smart, strategic investments in infrastructure.
To be successful, the plan must:
Include A National Strategy.
The federal government should develop a plan for a 21st-century national transporation network that identifies the regions and transportation projects that will keep America the most economically competitive. By reducing congestion in the air and on the roads, increasing our freight capacity in ports and intermodal facilities and eliminating critical bottlenecks on our highways.
Establish Strict Criteria for Investments.
Most federal transportation dollars are distributed to states according to a set formula, without regard to economic activity or resulting job creation. A national network requires national benchmarks to realize national outcomes. Federal policy must include new requirements that state officials conduct cost-benefit analyses or otherwise be held against specific performance standards for the use of federal funds.
Focus Investments on Economic Returns.
Three-quarters of U.S. GDP is generated in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, where two-thirds of the population lives. Federal dollars should prioritize improving capacity and efficiency at economic junctures that have national significance. Economically critical hot spots deserve and demand investment and innovation now in order to improve productivity and foster long-term growth nation-wide.
About Building America’s Future Educational Fund
Building America’s Future Educational Fund (BAF Ed Fund) is a bipartisan coalition of elected officials dedicated to bringing about a new era of U.S. investment in infrastructure that enhances our nation’s prosperity and quality of life. Founded by former Governor Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, BAF Ed Fund boasts a politically diverse membership of state and local elected officials from across the nation. BAF Ed Fund seeks to advance a new national vision for infrastructure investment that strengthens our cities and rural communities, and focuses on economic growth, global competitiveness, job creation, and environmental sustainability. In addition, we embrace a wide definition of infrastructure—from roads and bridges to water and sewer systems, energy systems, buses, trains, ports, airports, levees, dams, schools, and housing.
Building America’s Future
www.bafuture.org
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Building America’s Future
News Roundup: Infrastructure in the News:
August 12, 2011
Visions ... become Reality ... through Leadership.
and lots of Hard Work.
... I wonder if America has any "Workers", to spare?