Rethinking America's Highways

Rethinking America's Highways PDF Author: Robert W. Poole
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022655760X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
A transportation expert makes a provocative case for changing the nation’s approach to highways, offering “bold, innovative thinking on infrastructure” (Rick Geddes, Cornell University). Americans spend hours every day sitting in traffic. And the roads they idle on are often rough and potholed, with exits, tunnels, guardrails, and bridges in terrible disrepair. According to transportation expert Robert Poole, this congestion and deterioration are outcomes of the way America manages its highways. Our twentieth-century model overly politicizes highway investment decisions, short-changing maintenance and often investing in projects whose costs exceed their benefits. In Rethinking America’s Highways, Poole examines how our current model of state-owned highways came about and why it is failing to satisfy its customers. He argues for a new model that treats highways themselves as public utilities—like electricity, telephones, and water supply. If highways were provided commercially, Poole argues, people would pay for highways based on how much they used, and the companies would issue revenue bonds to invest in facilities people were willing to pay for. Arguing for highway investments to be motivated by economic rather than political factors, this book makes a carefully-reasoned and well-documented case for a new approach to highways.

Rethinking America's Highways

Rethinking America's Highways PDF Author: Robert W. Poole
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022655760X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book Here

Book Description
A transportation expert makes a provocative case for changing the nation’s approach to highways, offering “bold, innovative thinking on infrastructure” (Rick Geddes, Cornell University). Americans spend hours every day sitting in traffic. And the roads they idle on are often rough and potholed, with exits, tunnels, guardrails, and bridges in terrible disrepair. According to transportation expert Robert Poole, this congestion and deterioration are outcomes of the way America manages its highways. Our twentieth-century model overly politicizes highway investment decisions, short-changing maintenance and often investing in projects whose costs exceed their benefits. In Rethinking America’s Highways, Poole examines how our current model of state-owned highways came about and why it is failing to satisfy its customers. He argues for a new model that treats highways themselves as public utilities—like electricity, telephones, and water supply. If highways were provided commercially, Poole argues, people would pay for highways based on how much they used, and the companies would issue revenue bonds to invest in facilities people were willing to pay for. Arguing for highway investments to be motivated by economic rather than political factors, this book makes a carefully-reasoned and well-documented case for a new approach to highways.

User and Non-user Benefit Analysis for Highways

User and Non-user Benefit Analysis for Highways PDF Author:
Publisher: American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials
ISBN: 9781560514671
Category : Roads
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This document updates and expands the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) User Benefit Analysis for Highways, also known as the Red Book. This AASHTO publication helps state and local transportation planning authorities evaluate the economic benefits of highway improvements. This update incorporates improvements in user-benefit calculation methods and, for the first time, provides guidance for evaluating important non-user impacts of highways. Previous editions of the Red Book provided guidance regarding user benefit measurement only. This update provides a framework for project evaluations that accurately account for both user and non-user benefits. The manual and accompanying CD-ROM provide a valuable resource for people who analyze the benefits and costs of highway projects.

Investments in America's Hometowns

Investments in America's Hometowns PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Budget. Task Force on Community Development and Natural Resources
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description


Economic Analysis and Infrastructure Investment

Economic Analysis and Infrastructure Investment PDF Author: Edward L. Glaeser
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022680058X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
"Policy-makers often call for expanding public spending on infrastructure, which includes a broad range of investments from roads and bridges to digital networks that will expand access to high-speed broadband. Some point to near-term macro-economic benefits and job creation, others focus on long-term effects on productivity and economic growth. This volume explores the links between infrastructure spending and economic outcomes, as well as key economic issues in the funding and management of infrastructure projects. It draws together research studies that describe the short-run stimulus effects of infrastructure spending, develop new estimates of the stock of U.S. infrastructure capital, and explore the incentive aspects of public-private partnerships (PPPs). A salient issue is the treatment of risk in evaluating publicly-funded infrastructure projects and in connection with PPPs. The goal of the volume is to provide a reference for researchers seeking to expand research on infrastructure issues, and for policy-makers tasked with determining the appropriate level of infrastructure spending"--

Highway and Transit Investments

Highway and Transit Investments PDF Author: United States. Government Accountability Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Roads
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description


The Best Investment a Nation Ever Made

The Best Investment a Nation Ever Made PDF Author: Wendell Cox
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 0788141864
Category : Express highways
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
Without a first class system of interstate highways, life in America would be far different -- it would be more risky, less prosperous, & lacking in the efficiency & comfort that Americans now enjoy & take for granted. The Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate & Defense Highways, in place & celebrating its 40th anniversary, must surely be the best investment a nation ever made. Consider this: it has saved the lives of at least 187,000 people; it has prevented injuries to nearly 12 million people; it has returned more that $6 in economic productivity for each $1 it cost, & much more. Photos. Charts & tables.

America's Challenge for Highway Transportation in the 21st Century

America's Challenge for Highway Transportation in the 21st Century PDF Author: United States. Federal Highway Administration
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Highway planning
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) conducted an assessment of broad issues and trends that will shape the future of highway transportation in the United States. This report draws on the findings of 19 working papers prepared during 1987 and 1988, and presents options for meeting the most critical of the Nation's future needs. The report contains an Executive Summary, giving an overview of the report, and seven chapters. Chapter I examines the importance of highway transportation in meeting the Nation's economic and societal needs, discusses national objectives for the highway program and the Federal role in achieving those objectives, and describes past and present governmental roles and responsibilities in the construction and administration of highways. Chapters II and III examine demographic, economic, energy, and technological trends that will affect the future demand for highway transportation. Chapter IV analyzes factors influencing future passenger and freight travel demand, and Chapter V relates the travel demand factors described in earlier chapters to future capital investment requirements for highways. Chapter VI describes program alternatives for meeting future highway requirements and looks at regulatory and other nonconstruction requirements that relate to the operation of highways and the administration of the Federal-aid highway program. Chapter VII examines trends in highway finance and discusses future highway revenue requirements.

Focus

Focus PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Highway research
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description


Longterm pavement performance information management system pavement performance database user reference guide

Longterm pavement performance information management system pavement performance database user reference guide PDF Author:
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1428995234
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description


Interstate

Interstate PDF Author: Mark H. Rose
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 1572337834
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This new, expanded edition brings the story of the Interstates into the twenty-first century. It includes an account of the destruction of homes, businesses, and communities as the urban expressways of the highway network destroyed large portions of the nation’s central cities. Mohl and Rose analyze the subsequent urban freeway revolts, when citizen protest groups battled highway builders in San Francisco, Baltimore, Memphis, New Orleans, Washington, DC, and other cities. Their detailed research in the archival records of the Bureau of Public Roads, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Department of Transportation brings to light significant evidence of federal action to tame the spreading freeway revolts, curb the authority of state highway engineers, and promote the devolution of transportation decision making to the state and regional level. They analyze the passage of congressional legislation in the 1990s, especially the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), that initiated a major shift of Highway Trust Fund dollars to mass transit and light rail, as well as to hiking trails and bike lanes. Mohl and Rose conclude with the surprising popularity of the recent freeway teardown movement, an effort to replace deteriorating, environmentally damaging, and sometimes dangerous elevated expressway segments through the inner cities. Sometimes led by former anti-highway activists of the 1960s and 1970s, teardown movements aim to restore the urban street grid, provide space for new streetcar lines, and promote urban revitalization efforts. This revised edition continues to be marked by accessible writing and solid research by two well-known scholars.