“America requires a new vision for transportation. While our needs have changed in the last 50 years, our national models for selecting, prioritizing, coordinating, and funding transportation investments have not.”
From “Well Within Reach: America’s New Transportation Policy Agenda”
University of Virginia Miller Center for Public Affairs
October 2010
The University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Policy has made an important, timely contribution to a more prudent federal transportation policy with the release of “Well Within Reach: America’s New Transportation Policy Agenda.”
The document is based on discussions at the David R. Goode National Transportation Policy Conference hosted by the Miller Center in Charlottesville in September 2009. The Conference featured former Virginia Governor Gerald Baliles, former U.S. Transportation Secretaries Norman Mineta and Samuel Skinner, and more than 80 transportation experts.
Recommendations include:
- Stop the short-term bleeding by addressing the immediate transportation funding crisis with existing mechanisms such as the gas tax and heavy-duty vehicle fees.
- Look beyond the gas tax to a vehicle miles traveled based fee system for the long term.
- Base investments on long-term job and economic growth and competitiveness.
- Adopt a federal transportation capital budget that recognizes transportation expenditures as investments and takes into account future return on investment.
- Focus more attention on urban congestion reduction.
- Accelerate project delivery and completion.
- Build public support for expediting new resources by developing performance standards and shifting to a more outcome-oriented system.
To read the entire report, click here:
Well Within Reach: America’s New Transportation Policy Agenda
Released October 2010 (92 pages, 2.9MB)