United States Government Accountability Office
Report to Congressional Requesters
Read the full report at http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-121R
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (July 22, 2010) – Despite a growing awareness that America’s aging network of highways, bridges and tunnels is in failing health, huge roadblocks are preventing Congressional action on a new national transportation bill: the lack of adequate funding sources and consensus on a vision that helps plan, prioritize and pay for U.S. infrastructure.
A new America THINKS survey from HNTB Corporation suggests the answer may lie in a modern version of a solution that financed this country’s roads and bridges prior to the advent of a national gas tax more than 50 years ago: tolling.
“Decades of underinvestment have left the U.S. transportation system in a losing battle against time, population growth, weather and wear,” said Jack Finn, HNTB national director of toll services. “There is no such thing as a free road. Tolling is a proven source of alternative funding, already used in a variety of locations across the country. Its primary appeal – as a user fee – means those who use the road pay for the road.”
According to the survey, most Americans support tolls on roads and bridges to generate transportation revenue, especially those that save them drive time. And when it comes to construction, Americans prefer a focus on fixing existing infrastructure than building new facilities.
Read the full article at http://www.hntb.com/news-room/news-release/americans-prefer-tolls-over-taxes
Author: Neal Peirce
Is America ready to tear down more of the elevated expressways that ripped through its cities in our post-World War II freeway building boom?
It may well be. In New Orleans, there’s a concerted citizen-led campaign, backed by the national Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), to demolish 2.2 miles of the elevated Interstate-10 Claiborne Expressway as it plows into the city from the northeast, past the French Quarter and ending near the Superdome.
The New Orleans roadway may be the most poignant of the separate cases that CNU makes for taking down 10 major U.S. downtown freeways. The expressway was constructed to run straight through — and over the wishes — of the heavily African-American Treme neighborhood, where the city’s Creole aristocracy had once held sway.
But it’s more of a spur than an essential part of the interstate system. And its consequences have been grim. Old Claiborne Avenue, with its generous, oak-shaded median, a walkable neighborhood center with a history of picnics, Mardi Gras parades and black marching bands, literally disappeared under the broad new route that backers claimed would carry traffic and prosperity into downtown New Orleans.
Read the full article at http://citiwire.net/post/2241/
