The United States’ crumbling infrastructure and underfunded transportation systems will affect its place in the global economy, a bipartisan panel of experts concluded in a report released today.

The report titled “Well Within Reach – America’s New Transportation Agenda” states that “The United States can’t compete successfully in the 21st century with a 20th century transportation infrastructure.”

Lacking a coherent vision for our transportation future and chronically short of resources, we defer new investments, fail to plan, and allow existing systems to fall into disrepair. This shortsightedness and underinvestment—at the planning level and on our nation’s roads, rails, airports and waterways—costs the country dearly. It compromises our pro- ductivity and ability to compete internationally; transportation users pay for the system’s inefficiencies in lost time, money and safety. Rural areas are cut off from economic opportunities and even urbanites suffer from inadequate public transportation options. Meanwhile, transportation-related pollution exacts a heavy toll on our environment and public health.

Over 80 experts gathered at the David R. Goode National Transportation Policy Conference, at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia for three days to build the most “practical, implementable, and politically viable ideas among them.”

U.S. investment, the study states, in terms of transportation infrastructure, is so far behind that of China, Russia and Europe, that it will erode our social and economic foundations in the long run.

To address some of these problems, the group estimated that we would need an additional $134 billion to $262 billion per year through 2035 to rebuild our roads, rail systems and air transportation.

From a long term perspective, the report said that we need to come up with a steady revenue stream to fund our failing systems. Though an increase in the gas tax works as a short-term solution (the tax hasn’t gone up in 17 years), we need a new “pay as you go approach,” to be sustainable eventually.

“A fee of just one penny per mile would equal the revenue currently collected by the fuel tax; a fee of two cents per mile would generate the revenue necessary to support an appropriate level of investment over the long term,” the report said.

The experts also advocated the adoption of high-speed rail to ease congestion on our roads and airways, public-private partnerships to meet transportation goals, and the need for local and state governments to make decisions about their own transportation needs.

Top recommendations:

1. Stop the bleeding: Congress must address the immediate crisis in transportation funding.

2. Beyond the gas tax: Innovative thinking is needed to develop the next generation of user fees. Specifically, future funding mechanisms should not depend primarily on fossil-fuel consumption—which the government is actively seeking to discourage through a number of other policies—to keep up with transportation investment needs.

3. Jobs for the future, not just today: Future stimulus spending should be directed to those transportation projects that will deliver the greatest returns in terms of future U.S. competitiveness, economic growth, and jobs. Building a foundation for sustained prosper- ity and long-term job creation is more important than boosting short-term employment in road construction.

4. Pass the power, please: Clarify decision-making power and enhance the effective- ness of states, localities, and metropolitan planning organizations.

5. Adopt a capital budget: The federal government should adopt accounting methods that (A) recognize expenditures on transportation infrastructure as investments (rather than consumption) and (B) take into account future returns on those investments.

6. Connect the dots: Adopt an integrated approach to transportation planning that includes freight and goods movement and stresses intermodal connectivity.

7. Getting Americans home in time for dinner: Find more effective ways of reducing urban congestion.

8. It’s all about leverage: Encourage public-private partnerships while also improving oversight of such partnerships.

9. Deliver transportation investments on time: Reform project planning, review, and permitting processes to speed actual implementation.

10. Build a foundation for informed policy: Better and more timely data are essential to measure progress toward defined goals and objectives and to improve the performance of the nation’s transportation systems.

As we have been saying all along, for the United States to truly compete on the global platform in the long run, we’re going to have start making it easier for people to get around. More so, we need to reduce our dependency on oil both from a environment perspective, but also to protect our national security.

Via Washington Post