Crumbling Infrastructure
Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
To look at that title up there at the top of this entry, you’d think I was referring to the I-35 bridge collapse or something along those lines. Not exactly.
I am actually referring to the crumbling infrastructure of our funding system. Yeah, I know it’s crumbling more of in a symbolic sense than actually, because really, funding is still out there.
What sparked this notion was a comment on a transit blog that Amtrak’s problems could be solved if a fraction of the money spent on highways was given to the agency. The thing is, as we’ve found out with the aforementioned bridge collapse, the national highway systems need help themselves.
Our infrastructure is literally falling apart across the country. It’s not like highways are necessarily under-funded, but the continual upkeep (especially in those northern states with harsher winters) drains funds faster than they can be provided.
This is why I say our funding system is crumbling. It’s really at the heart of this problem. The U.S. is far better off than most of the world when it comes to gas prices and yet people cringe at the thought of an increased gas tax. Congestion pricing? It’s been proven that it works, yet convincing people that it will reap benefits in the U.S. has been a monumental undertaking.
So without new taxes or charging people for using roads, where is the money going to come from? The U.S. is not in desperate straits. That’s Chicken Little thinking. But it’s definitely driving down that pathway paved with good intentions.
The thing is what do we need to do to slam on the brakes and get it into reverse?
Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.
August 24th, 2007 at 11:58 am
The federal gas tax has not increased in almost 10 years, while gas prices are up about 150% and construction prices are also significantly higher (although probably not as dramatically). Even a doubling of the gas tax over the next 2-3 years (from $0.18 to $0.36) would likely not be noticed by the consumer at the pump in comparison to the volatility of the price of gas itself over the same period.
http://www.artba.org/economics_research/reports/gas_tax_history.htm
Moreover, we need to invest in maintaining and improving the infrastructure we have today before we start building even more lane miles.
August 24th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Cut the pork for once and all. Let a business expert/professional executive with proven records run the store. (Mit?/Rudy?) I don’t know anymore. I am saddened. We are a blessed country, truly. But ever inching away from foundational basics…the true crumbling. Heaven help us.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Since transit operates at a very large deficit, has been obtaining a large part of its funding from gas taxes which were meant to go for highway maintenance or construction. In fact, some of the spending meant for transit actually goes to real estate development instead of transit itself.
As an example of the misuse of revenue, in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has spent $45 Million in gas tax revenues on Transit Oriented Development (TOD) consisting of constructing 16,000 apartments in high density housing projects. The $45 Million was just for building the apartments alone and none of it went to buying transit vehicles or maintenance facilities.
Here in California, the voters are not at all pleased with the idea raising gas taxes or implementing “congestion pricing” when they know that the money has been (and will be) siphoned off for TOD projects instead of highway construction or maintenance.
If the misuse of funds collected from gas taxes keeps up, it’s a sure bet that the voters will rebel with another “Prop 13” style initiative that will cut off all financing for transit.
August 24th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Analysis of the total picture is important. Building denser housing equates to lower vmt=lower traffic volume. But we want to finance transit; threats of “cutting off transit funding” will vaporize milliseconds after announcement of gas rationing due to disaster or someone’s miltary decision. Ours or theirs? No matter, it seems we are nearing the time when simple oilwell depletion will dictate transport policy here, even if everyone behaves themselves.
Fred Jandt’s statement about the US not “in desperate straits” needs a bit of work, if one looks at the full picture of water, sewer infrastructure, electrical distribution, etc. THEN add road maintenance like potholes, crack sealing, drainage, repaving, safety striping. Add bridges & tunnels. Now we are getting close to the size of things… New roads are things politicians can put their names on, not rehabs and upgrades and retrofits and relining tunnels and replacing electric transmission lines and, er, rebuilding bridges.
In 1985 this writer concurred with an article in the Sacramento BEE stating the infrastructure problems of CA, beginning a thinking process with the following result: The basic infrastructure/transport rehab is not achievable without attention to a methodology that looks at something like the Military “Second Dimension Surface Transport Logtistics Platform”. Again, looking at the WWII mode, we suspended the rush from railway based commerce during the big war, using every mile of branchline, interurban track and creaky piece of equipment, -so that- we could focus commerce best utilizing highways to highways, and that which could or recently had been rail-hauled, went back to rail haul for the duration. Now we are faced with a similar crunch, this time an energy crisis coupled with need to upgrade infrastructure including massive alternative transport upgrades. Somewher in all this, the need to rehab and extend railway capacity & reach, connected to renewable energy infrastructure growth, seems obvious.
Where, in the forest of bright young staffers, glued to their respective presidential wannabes, are the rail savvy men & women that will diligently study the methodology of railway operation and distribution, so necessary to “keep ‘em rolling” thru the daunting task of infrastructure repair & modernization facing our dear country? Railroad corporate executives need to allow time from the golf course and the other perks of their exalted status, to get in touch with the MBA’s of tommorrow, and recent grads too- explain how the rails work, and why they must grow with all due haste…!
August 26th, 2007 at 10:26 am
I tend to agree with Mr. Drake, whose comments appear above. I cannot agree with the “theory” that for every catastrophic event or cause, new taxes are required. Tax money is being poured down political “ratholes” in the form of Earmarks (The Bridge to Nowhere), and I would support political term limits for Congress to perhaps better direct the available tax revenues. Referring to European gas prices as a comparison to ours is “cherry picking” one item of a nations over-all economy. All factors which govern a person’s “budget” must be considered.
August 26th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
The problem is not a lack of money but bad priorities. ELiminate earmarks like the bridge to nowhere and fix what we’ve built.
August 27th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Ditto on everything that’s been said so far. We have painted ourselves into a corner by promoting suburban sprawl and cheap transportation to support it. Now it seems an almost insurmountable task to bring everything back to a more sustainable model. People can’t afford to pay more taxes, or more for fuel, because they need their incomes to buy more stuff at “Wally World”- and of course their SUV’s. The obvious place to begin, is to STOP building more lanes and highways to more greenfield developments. If people don’t like the congestion, they should choose to live elsewhere- like near transit.
With respect to G.Dutch’s observation on the spending for TOD developments: I understand why those decisions were made- to provide attractive residential alternatives as an incentive to choose a TOD lifestyle. But I think you are right, the general public won’t make that connection.So if we cut off the free ride to the country, and then the public decides it does want TOD or to stay close to city centers, then it will be up to the development community to respond to that market pressure. After all they have been making money “hand-over-fist” at the expense of the public in terms of what it will cost (in both dollars and political capital) to fix our infrastructure. When the profit potential arises, the developers will be there!
August 27th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
The federal funding formula which has reduced per-capita spending on all tranportation projects, has especially pinched transit projects, and few local and state governments have been willing to make up the shortfall. The known result is that the feds are dictating a dumbing down and cheapening of transit projects for which federal funds have been applied. Highways, on the other hand, have a broader set of criteria for funding, which far less often results in their reduced design.
In the time of unstable international energy markets, GHG emission knowledge, and the effects of global warming, it is especially surprising that there has been little if any federal response, and that State, Regional and Local governments have been so slow to act.
Many believe it is politically impossible to implement, but given the indifference of many state, regional and local officials towards incresed transit aspirations, not to mention intercity rail, it would seem appropriate to end the 50-year fixation with highway spending (much of which is wasted on chasing sprawl in a race that cannot be won) and redirect all existing federal funding to transit projects. Under this approach, only system maintenance and ITS would be elegible for federal highway funds. State, regional and local officials could then direct their efforts to raising revenues from their electorate for highway projects, and the tables would be turned in favor of transit spending.
And, while we read daily about the gridlock in the air traffic control system, it’s especially surprising that few have made the intellectual connection to an obvious ingredient in the solution to air traffic congestion–rebuilding the inter-city rail network and infusing far more funds into AMTRAC and regional rail networks, thereby reducing demand for shorter-distance flights.
On the matter of the gas tax, one wonders what sort of citizens we are who numbly and passively shell out dollars for fast increasing gasoline and diesel prices of $1 or more per gallon (most of which leaves the country), while screaming like stuck pigs if someone suggests increasing the gas tax or other taxes/fees by 5-25 cents to invest in our own infrastructure!
September 4th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Thank you Mr. Jandt for your article about the crumbling national infrastructure. In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers evaluated many forms of our infrastructure and issued “report card” grades for each mode. Here is an excerpt from their website “ASCE’s 2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure assessed the condition and capacity of our nation’s public works with an overall grade of D. ASCE estimates that $1.6 trillion is needed over a five-year period to bring the nation’s infrastructure to good condition.” We need all the ideas presented above (more money, better priorities, more concentrated development) and then some to provide that kind of financial support to our ever expanding national infrastructure.