What Needs to Be Done
The AASHTO Board of Directors has approved a bold array of strategies necessary if America is to retain its transportation competitiveness and to avoid the pending freight crisis. These strategies cut across all modes, all regions, and all sectors of the economy. AASHTO developed these recommendations specifically to assist the efforts of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission which has been created by Congress to address the future of the nation’s transportation system.
The Board of Directors approved a series of recommendations directly addressing the freight challenge facing America.
Recommendation 1. Meeting America’s surface transportation needs for the future will require a strategy which goes well beyond just “more of the same.” It will require a multi-modal approach, which preserves what has been built to date, improves system performance, and adds substantial capacity in highways, transit, freight rail, intercity passenger rail, and better connections to ports, airports, and border crossings.
Recommendation 2. Surface transportation investment needs to be increased to the levels required to keep the U.S. competitive in the global economy and to meet America’s 21st Century mobility needs. Highway and transit spending must be steadily grown to compensate for inflation and to reach the levels necessary to improve levels of condition and performance.
Recommendation 3. Congress should take a four-phase approach to increasing revenues to the levels needed. In Phase 1, a 3-cent increase or its equivalent in 2009 would be required to sustain the program at the level guaranteed in SAFETEA-LU and, in Phase 2, another 7-cent increase or its equivalent in 2010 would be required to restore the program’s purchasing power. This would increase highway assistance from $43 billion in 2010 to $73 billion by 2015. In Phase 3, Congress should increase the program toward meeting the “cost-to-improve” goals estimated in U.S. DOT’s Conditions and Performance Report. AASHTO’s analysis shows that indexing fuel taxes or changing to a sales tax on fuel could increase Highway Trust Fund revenues to between $82 billion and $95 billion by 2021. In Phase 4, federal fuel taxes should be supplemented or replaced with a vehicle miles traveled tax.
Recommendation 4. From resources outside the Highway Trust Fund, additional federal government financing should be provided for freight-related investments, including freight gateways, connectors, corridors and border crossings. With state involvement, incentives for new investment in freight-rail infrastructure by rail companies through Federal investment tax credits and depreciation adjustments should be developed. Federal funding should be provided to states for participation in public-benefit rail improvements. Revenue measures such as dedicating 5 percent of customs fees to transportation freight projects and providing assistance financed through tax credit bonds should be enacted.
AASHTO’s analysis shows that between Railroad Investment Tax Credits, container fees or a dedicated portion of customs revenues, and tax credit bonds, $44 billion in additional federal assistance for freight improvements could be made available between 2010 and 2015.
Recommendation 5. Existing federal programs that increase capacity and efficiency in freight-rail transportation, such as the railroad rehabilitation and improvement financing program and the highway-rail crossing program, should be continued.
Recommendation 6. Establish a National Rail Transportation Policy. Intercity passenger and freight rail are critical components of the nation’s surface transportation system. Current rail capacity is not sufficient to meet passenger or freight needs. It is imperative that a national rail policy be developed which addresses institutional roles, passenger and freight capacity, and new non-Highway Trust Fund funding and financing options.
Recommendation 7. The federal government should provide support to multi-state/regional investment banks to finance improvements to regionally and nationally significant freight projects, where costs are in a single state, but benefits accrue to several states.
Recommendation 8. The federal government should encourage the private sector to invest in operational and capacity improvements that can relieve freight bottlenecks and improve the flow of goods and services. The federal government should also provide support for state efforts to relieve critical freight chokepoints through investment in projects such as truck lanes and intermodal connectors. States, in collaboration with the freight transportation industry and the federal government, should investigate the feasibility of regional adjustments in truck size and weight in particular corridors that demonstrate important economic benefits and meet safety, pavement/bridge impact and financing criteria.
Recommendation 9. Preserve today’s 47,000-mile Interstate Highway System so that it lasts for the next 50 years.
Recommendation 10. Add nearly as much capacity to the Interstate Highway System over the next 50 years as was built over the last 50. Substantial capacity will have to be added to enable the Interstate System of the future to continue to play its role as a strategic national highway network with the ability to move traffic with acceptable speed and reliability. While much greater state-by-state analysis is needed, recent studies show that there is a need to add as many as 10,000 miles of new routes on new corridors, 20,000 miles of upgrades to National Highway System routes to Interstate standards, and 20,000 new lane-miles on existing Interstate routes. These could include exclusive truck lanes and value-priced lanes. System improvement would also include correcting bottlenecks, upgrading interchanges, and improving intermodal connections.
Recommendation 11. Resources available through the Inland Waterways Trust Fund and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund should be used for their legislated purposes. The federal government should provide additional resources and support state initiatives to integrate planning and investment for water transportation with surface transportation in order to address the landside demands generated by ports and the underutilized potential of the inland waterway system to relieve congestion on the roads.
