Introduction
Setting Bold Goals for America’s Future Transportation System
In 1956, America embraced a national vision for transportation by launching the Interstate Highway System—a transportation investment that changed the face of the nation and made it the economic powerhouse of the world.
Since 1950 our population has increased by 130 million, highway travel has increased five-fold, our metropolitan population has increased from 85 million to 225 million, and we have gone from an industrial economy that was largely self-contained to one that is high-tech and service-based in an increasingly competitive global economy.
What will it take to meet America’s surface transportation needs for the future? It will require a multi-modal and an intermodal approach of preservation, improved system performance and new capacity in every mode. It will also require solutions addressing land use, energy, global climate change, the environment, and community quality of life.
The top priority in AASHTO’s Strategic Plan is to reestablish transportation as a national priority. In addition, AASHTO has identified bold goals critical to the creation of a transportation system that meets America’s needs in the 21st Century.
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Increase federal highway funding from $43 billion to $73 billion, and transit funding from $10.3 billion to $17.3 billion by 2015—to remedy the erosive impacts of inflation and skyrocketing construction costs and restore the purchasing power of the federal-aid program.
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Supplement state and local revenues through alternative financing options. Increase the percentage of highway revenues generated by tolling from 5 percent to 9 percent, triple highway capital investment financed by public–private ventures, and support the development of alternatives to fuel taxes.
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Double transit ridership over the next 20 years.
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Preserve today’s 47,000-mile Interstate Highway System, so it lasts for at least the next 50 years.
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Add nearly as much capacity to the Interstate Highway System over the next 50 years as was built over the past 50 years. To accommodate impending growth in population and traffic, add 10,000 miles of new routes on new alignments, adding 20,000 lane-miles to existing Interstates, and upgrading 20,000 miles of NHS routes to Interstate status. Correct bottlenecks, improve intermodal connections, upgrade interchanges, and create exclusive truck lanes.
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Reduce annual highway fatalities by 10,000 each decade.
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Reduce congestion and energy consumption; improve air quality.
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Establish a National Rail Transportation Policy to address passenger and freight needs.
