Repairing the Problem with America's Transportation System
There is a serious problem with our nation's roads and highways. I find myself repeatedly avoiding trips to the city for this very reason, as I'm sure many others do as well. This nerve-wracking congestion is even beginning to find its way into the suburbs and surrounding areas of large cities. It is a serious problem that affects everyone who owns an automobile, as well as, businesses that are dependent on reliable and convenient transportation. To top it all off, this problem is getting worse every year. The population of this nation is growing, which translates to an increase in cars on the road. More people are moving to cities and the suburbs that surround them,
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The Clinton administration proposed a plan called the National Economic Crossroads Efficiency Act, or NEXTEA. I personally think they spent more time on the name of this act than on the actually content of it. This plan will increase the amount of money in the Highway Trust Fund, yet reduce total spending by $500 million. And the purpose of that is?????? you got me, I guess there isn?t a logical one. The number of federal programs and non-highway projects will also be increased, thus diverting even more money away from are already under funded roads and highways (Fay 4).
Another pathetic attempt by the federal government was the 1991 transportation bill called the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, yet more proof of Washington?s tremendous skill at naming bills. But wait, this bill raised overall funding to record levels! Let?s examine it a little more closely. It increased the number of non-highway projects to be funded, including $30 million for a moving sidewalk in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Now that makes me mad every time I think about it. A moving sidewalk? In the end, this bill actually reduced the amount of money that was used for roads and highways (Henderson 1). It is clear that Washington is not capable of or willing to handle our transportation problems effectively.
My solution is to not let Washington ?screw? this problem up anymore and let the states and private investors handle
The traffic problem in Atlanta drains both time and money for thousands. It has been shown that Atlanta drivers spend on average 51 unnecessary hours behind the wheel each year (WSB Radio, 2013). That’s more than two 24 hour days spent sitting in traffic. During all this time spent, Atlantans end up spending upwards of $1000 per year on gas and collectively use 63,000,000 gallons of gas each year while sitting in traffic (WSB Radio, 2013). Traffic in Atlanta has been a huge waste of time and money for Atlantans for years and something needs to be done to alleviate the
Evidence: A study presented by the white house on its website reported that 65% of roads rated in less than good condition. 25% of bridges require significant repair or cannot handle today's traffic. Also because certain roads cannot be used there is more traffic. The Texas Transportation Institute estimates that American commuters in urban areas collectively lost 5.5 billion hours stuck in traffic in 2011, meaning the average commuter lost nearly a week to traffic. their calculations further suggest that traffic congestion caused American commuters to purchase an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel, costing them more than $120 billion in added fuel costs and wasted time.
While the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1956 created the U.S. Interstate system and brought a nation together, the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1973 would later create division in federal and state political parties over future funding concerns. In the short run, President Nixon considered this act as a positive step for transportation and the economy. However, in the long run, this act led to the eroding of HTF’s, leaving both state and federal government debating over how to proceed in funding a transportation infrastructure that is at present time slowly crumbling. Political differences between federal and state agencies have brought the modernization process of the transportation infrastructure to a snail’s pace. In addition, the lengthy
Despite the tremendous economic success in Texas and its overall well-being, the state continues to face its nonstandard set of challenges that must be addressed immediately. Certainly, the most pressing issue is a deteriorating transportation infrastructure, which requires innovation, long-range planning and, of course, investment (Button & Reggiani, 2011). The following study focuses on the deteriorating transportation infrastructure as a major issue facing the state of Texas. The report will also discuss the positions of two major Texas political parties (Republican and Democratic) on the issue. It further explains the ways of their addressing it. Next, it will discuss the overall goals, the position, the level of lobbying and the
Introduction: Federal grant agendas offer state and local governments varying steps of flexibility over the use of grant funds. For example, block grants provide only extensive factors for using those funds, leaving state and local government’s significant liberty when they make spending results. By contrast, state and local governments face more spending limitations on how they use categorical formula grants. For example, definite standards govern the types of roads that state governments may improve using federal highway grant funds. Though, among all probable road schemes that meet the recognized standards, states are normally able to select which ones to fund. Project grants deliver state and local governments the minimum tractability over
In this detailed report, essential actors such as the Transportation, Natural Resources, and California Environmental Protection Agency provide ongoing projects they are developing which collectively helps California attain an improved infrastructure plan. In recent events, Californians passed Measure M in 2016 by a 71.5% margin which will serve as sales tax to “improver freeway traffic flow/safety; repair potholes/sidewalks; repave local streets”(Metro). An unpopular decision that has affected commuters was the recent gas tax signed into effect by governor Jerry Brown on November 1st 2017. This increase in tax , formerly known as the Senate 1 Bill, increased gasoline prices by 12 cents to help fund the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of the California Highway Patrol. Over the course of a decade, this legislative package aims to collects $54 Billion to fix roads, freeways and bridges. In terms of distribution, $200,000,000 of the funds will go into road maintenance, $100,000,000 of the funds will go to the Active Transportation Program, and $400,000 of the funds will go to maintenance and rehabilitation (State of California
With the upcoming presidential election, this year there is one very unnerving fact that has received overwhelming bipartisan recognition; America has a serious problem with infrastructure and something must be done. Across the country, dams, roads, sewage systems and bridges were built with Works Progress Administration funds in the 1930s. Seventy years later, they are in despair. As a nation, we must address Americas’ failing infrastructure and close the ever-increasing infrastructure deficit before the backbone of America crumbles right under our own two feet. To do so U.S. policymakers must act now to raise funds, without increasing our national debt. No intervention by the government will lead to a continuance of deteriorating the health
Everything is bigger in Texas. That’s what a lot of Texans what Americans and people around the world to know – you don’t mess with Texas. In the 1950’s, when President Eisenhower created the first Interstate plan for the country and implemented new roads in almost every single state, it was the largest engineering feat in the modern world. Now, almost half a century later, Governor Rick Perry is set to break that record, with the costliest, largest, and most incredible-sized proportion Texas Trans-Corridor, dubbed the “Texas Superhighway,” a 4000 mile, $175 billion dollar project that won’t be completely functional for another fifty years (Perry). This project certainly
The California High-Speed Rail is a high-speed rail system currently under construction in California and is a bad idea for the state. During the November election in 2008, Californians were asked to approve a $45 billion bullet train. Proposition 1A passed, but just barely. Since then just about everything the voters were promised in 2008 about the rail system has changed. With a $45 billion price tag, and with far from an overwhelming mandate at 52% of the votes, this project is far from being built. The first phase of the system could be completed by 2029, provided that additional funds are obtained. Phase 2 (which has no timetable yet) was originally planned to extend the system northerly in the Central Valley to the Sacramento Valley Station in Sacramento, and southerly (through the Inland Empire) to the San Diego International Airport in San Diego. That too has changed, Sacramento and San Diego are now not even mentioned in future planning.
The issue of restoring American bridges comes from a federal point of view, specifically the Department of Transportation that in charge of ensuring the passing of FHTF-RAIAPS. Passing this bill signifies an increase in gasoline tax as well as an increase in corporate tax. FHTF-RAIAPS resembles President’s Obama proposal— to overhaul corporate and business taxes to pay for repairing and replacing the nation’s aging roads, rails, bridges and tunnels— except that he opposed to raising gasoline tax (Shear, 2014). The fact they differ in equitable taxation for gasoline, makes their restructuring approach totally different from obtaining public input, delivering organizational activities, getting outputs and achieving the desired
A State Master Plan for Transportation was adopted, which is a state effort to coordinate planning and delivery of projects, focused on reducing traffic congestion and on expanding bus, rail and other public transit systems instead of adding more freeways. The passage of Senate Bill 45 in 1997 dramatically changed the process by which state and federal transportation funds are allocated for transportation, placing most of the responsibility for planning and prioritizing project funding in the hands of local and regional agencies rather than the state, which allowed the state to delegate the issue to the cities, but still require cities to get approval of said plans In 2004 California approved the Transportation Congestion Improvement Act to protect transportation funds by limiting the use of transportation funds from gas sales tax for non transportation-related needs till 2008. California voters approved Propositions 1A and 1B in 2006 with proposition 1A permanently protected transportation funds and required previously diverted funds to be repaid and proposition 1B authorizing the sale of $19.9 billion in bonds for a broad range of transportation projects. Due
The funding sources came from the Federal which estimated about $161. 85 million, the State which estimated about $30 million, and the Local which estimated about $40.3 million. Furthermore, with this funding they were able to do add a second track and safety enhancements such as new gates, flash warning devices, raised center dividers, pedestrian crosswalk, and pavement markings. In addition to these enhancements, in some communities’ sound walls and quiet zones are being set up. The government’s goal and objective include but are not limited to: improving the transportation system with alternate travel choices, invest and deploy resources effectively and efficiently, promote community and transit oriented development, and minimize adverse environmental
Phoenix is large city in the United States and it is also the biggest city in Arizona. There are lots of who people live, work and study here. Therefore, there are always traffic jams in the rush hours which are morning and afternoon. If the government could improve the public transportation, for example, by adding more buses, there would be fewer people driving cars. According to Tribune (2009) Arizona lobbyists criticize claims that spending more money to improve public transportation is important, not only for creating more jobs, but also for help for reduce traffic, air pollution, and our dependence on oil. This shows that the public transportation here should be improved. Improving public transportation will also be beneficial for citizens in Arizona. It is because there will be fewer traffic jams then people will be taking buses instead of
The current election cycle has two candidates that are both polarizing and have many flaws. The one issue that both candidates can agree on is infrastructure. Both believe that the US must invest in new infrastructure to rebuild the old failing structures that currently exist. NY Times contributor Paul Krugman agrees with the candidates and offers his opinion of how the government can pay for the new construction (1).
Our transportation system, quite arguably, may embody our most vital system, as Infrastructure and Democracy clarifies, “access is the hallmark of a great infrastructure” (Jones, Reinecke). By great contrast, our roads remain a current issue. 42 percent of America’s urban highways remain congested, costing the United States 101 billion dollars in wasted time and fuel each year. Also, the32 percent of roads, in poor or mediocre condition, cost the average traveler $324 per year (American Infrastructure Report Card). Unfortunately, updating the highway systems seems longer than it may seem, as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that from proposal to completion most highways will need nine to nineteen years to fix (Leduc, Wilson 129). In addition to the roads, our bridges are failing just as much. One of every nine bridges within the United States is categorized as structurally deficient. The average bridge 42 years old, and in order to eliminate the bridge renovation backlog, our country would need to invest twenty and a half billion dollars until 2028 (American Infrastructure Report Card). However, in 2013, the United States only invested 12.8 billion dollars in bridge reconstruction and repair (American Infrastructure Report Card). Also, our countries transit