In rebuilding America’s infrastructure, I would like to see serious consideration given to creating highly restricted commercial lanes in the interstate highway system. With tight restrictions on access – perhaps with physical barriers to exclude private vehicles from entering – longer “land-trains” moving at higher speeds for longer distances without stopping by having multiple professional drivers could add tremendous efficiency and flexibility to current freight and bus systems that are not feasible with railroads.

Special safety features to allow higher consistent speeds could be a part of this plan.

With federal support, creation of new technologies and vehicles to take advantage of these new road systems could provide auto-makers with a new predictable market and consumers with an economical alternative to automobiles and traditionally trucked freight.

Education, rail, and broadband

The U.S. is EXTREMELY LUCKY to have one last golden opportunity to repair and update infrastructure.

A very short window providing LOW GAS PRICES may allow America to rebuild at a relatively reasonable cost.

Fuel cost is of course the primary variable that determines the cost of large infrastructure projects… just a few months ago the cost of any large project was prohibitively expensive for faltering national and state economies.

NOW IS THE TIME!!!!

Let’s not miss this last opportunity to do now what we may not be able to afford in the future when gas again reaches $4.00 + a gallon, increasing the cost of projects by 20 percent or more.

Please, no more trillion dollar subsidies for far flung suburban sprawl. Cancel every loop, outer loop, and outer outer loop of every city in the country. Cancel sewers to nowhere. Cut their water off. Cancel the 16 lanes freeway extensions to worthless ranchland.

We built the world’s most wasteful cities with the subsidies that made greedy developers the wealthiest welfare cheats on earth, and we are killing in every oil exporter in the third world to feed the addiction.

Building green means canceling the giveaways to the developers of suburbia.

Kirk,
I agree!

Infrasructure repair and new building should focus on making the country GREENER and more prepared for the day (coming quickly) when gas again costs $4.00 + a gallon.

Rebuild national rail lines, mass transit lines and facilities, and inner city pedestrian/bicycle zones.

Fix existing, but failing infrastructure.

Subsidize green technologies and their incorporation into existing infrastructure.

Focus on tightening high population zones so that long distant commutes are discouraged and unnecessary… most americans won’t be able to afford commuting in the near future anyway, so plan for it!

Hi Tom,

Your first guest is ill-informed, at least when it comes to transportation infrastructure. His assertion that there is a problem in prioritizing or finding good infrastructure projects is just false. In terms of transportation at least, every region of the country is mandated by federal law to have a ready list of prioritized projects. In every major metropolitan area in the United States one can find in various stages of planning and design worthy, well analyzed and poorly funded transportation projects. Finding good projects is definitely not the problem.

Thanks,
Ben, Boston

We need to take a radical approach to solving multiple problems in a cost-effective way. Each of our cities needs a “beltway” around it within which only electric cars and green mass transportation operate. Outside the beltway mass transportation and progressively greener cars can handle the long distances. The benefits: immediate building of transportation-efficient roads (not MORE roads), commuter parking lots and public transportation centers, a very significant reduction in crawling and stand-still traffic and its pollution. We have the technology for all of this…let’s show roll!

Hi Tom,
I feel it must start with a multi-pronged approach: Public transportation, (including repairing the beds that the rail lines sit on so we can increase the speed and efficiency of railway)and an new infrastructure for hydrogen and/or charging stations for electric cars.

Please, no more highways.

Restore train and rapid transit lines.

More Amtrack high speed tracks and trains. Detroit can be a big part of this.

The government subsidies for automobile travel have bankrupt our economy. Clearly we went to war in Iraq for oil which protects our autocentric travel habits and suburban sprawl. We now have too much infrastructure to rebuild. We must return to more compact development.

If people want to live 40 miles away from the city center let them pay the full costs of the roads, sewers, new schools, and defense of oil resources.

I agree with Kirk and John and others that within the city beltways urban areas need to be redesigned to house those who work in the city. Long daily commutes to work should not be the norm. We need to preserve our agricultural lands and open spaces for our future. We have a responsibility to be good stewards of our planet. This will require a radical change in the way we cluster our housing and cities. Sprawl needs to be ended.

The following is a letter to the editor I wrote last year.

 I well remember the excitement I felt when Senator Daniel Moynihan of New York proposed the  development of  maglev (magnetic levitation) a revolutionary method of train travel that enables trains to travel two hundred miles an hour and more.  I watched and waited–nothing happened.  Almost twenty years have passed.

In the meantime two stories come to mind:  (1) an interview with a French citizen who commutes two hundred miles to and from work in Paris, spending an hour each way on the train and (2) the recent story of protests by Chinese citizens against their new maglev train system being built that would enable trains to travel up to two hundred and fifty miles an hour.  China, for heaven’s sake!

Fast forward to today and the stories of Thruway rate increases, sky-high gas prices, an inefficient and crumbling Amtrak and infrastructure system, rising airfare prices.   Had Moynihan’s proposals been enacted, there would be almost none of those stories.  Imagine the impact on the environment and our pocketbooks, not to mention what might have happened to development  in Western New York.  

Americans can be such saps!  The rest of the developed world progresses merrily on while we let special interests and lobbies dictate what happens here,  heedless of the consequences.

Hi Tom,

One aspect of infrastructure rebuilding in this country that must also be addressed is our “energy grid”. I seem to recall massive blackouts on the east coast in the past caused by a breakdown in our ageing energy transmission capacity. I would be interested in hearing your guests thoughts on this matter.

Echoing several comments, I note that the Interstate system is currently “deficient” according to its own standards: a good 10% of the system does not support travel at speeds of 100 km/hr (60+ mi/hr), much less 65 mi/hr or 70 mi/hr. In some places (and not just a “few”), the limits are below 50 mi/hr. Also, several stretches of Interstate simply end in surface streets.

Regarding light rail, please note that trollies (trams that stop often) compete satisfactorily with cars only in dense urban environments. Trollies cannot achieve high average speeds AND stop frequently (say, every three blocks) without brutal acceleration. Trollies must be augmented by regional and then by higher level systems (probably rail as people have been shown to avoid changing modes in public transport). Thus, any rail infrastructure must be layered.

Of note, it was GM (and Firestone and Standard Oil) who broke up the US rail system in the 20s (look it up on the internet or just watch WHo Framed Roger Rabbit). Maybe any auto bail out should require corporate help to restore what was destroyed.

Don’t think too narrowly about infrastructure. Anything that has a long term social benefit is infrastructure. Think in addition to rail, bridges, etc. Add education, healthcare, retirement, retraining, the legal system, rationalizing zoning, and more.

We build our wealth through all of these.

Priority must be on replacing/repairing our infrastructure based upon safety needs (bridges, railways, etc) and cleaning up our “sins of the past”. Before for we concern ourselves about our future pollution concerns and contributions, shouldn’t we first address the hundreds of SuperFund sites that already exist?? Let’s face it, we’re so much more in tune with pollution issues today than we were even 20 years ago, that we can continue to proceed in the right direction without “stimulus” spending on our predicted future needs.

I am an urban planner and a strong Obama supporter. However, I’m growing a bit concerned about his support for infrastructure issues. So far his transition has been concerned primarily with the “sexy” cabinet positions… Secretary of State, etc. Little to no mention has been made of the positions most critical to infrastructure redevelopment: Transportation Secretary, Labor Secretary, HUD Secretary. What’s the hold up?

Also, I was excited to hear about the White House Office of Urban Policy during the campaign, and I believe that Valarie Jarrett has reiterated Obama’s commitment to instituting this office. But again, the President-elect has not focused on this at all. I hope that now that the foreign policy positions have been taken care of Obama will give the needed attention to fill the critical domestic policy cabinet positions.

We are a country of idiots and we love our cars.

Look at the toll hikes in Massachusetts, $7 for the toll to and from East Boston. Way to go Governor Patrick.

We need a gas tax, and we need it now, why the governor supports the toll hike is beyond me.

I heard of one business in East Boston that will have to spend $1200 a week now to make the deliveries.

Just what we need in a economic downturn dumb ideas that put people out of work.

I use the tunnels and Mass pike maybe a few times a year. I have no problem paying 12 or 15 cents more per gallon at the pump to stop this madness.

The Mass Transportation Authority needs to be done away with. Lets make those bozo’s redundant instead of the hard working folks most affected by these tolls.

What about the electric power grid? Broadband, both wired and wireless?

If you really want long term economic stimulus you need to invest in infrastructure that support a whole range of industries including industries that may not even exist today. Transportation is very important, but it mainly supports 20th century industries.

It seems that there is much more concern about spending on infrastructure programs that would put people to work than there was about spending billions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Too much hypocrisy on the part of many in Congress.

Infrastructure in XX-th century is not the same thing as it is in XXI-st century. Hence, not only roads, bridges and traditional mortar and bricks are the areas of infrastructure development, but broadband access is a lot more efficacious in generating higher returns in the economy and significantly lower the environmental impact of this economic activity. I was very surprised not to hear any discussion of this on your show…

May I suggest that President-elect Obama consider creating a Department of Sustainability that could look at the interconnectedness of all systems from energy to water, transportation, infrastructure, and food production? Tom Ashbrook’s excellent interview with Michael Pollan brought up the point about FOOD as an issue that must be addressed in terms of the whole energy picture. We must look at federal policies that promote maximum production of commodity crops, not only because of the huge fossil fuel use it entails, but if we fix that, it will also have a positive impact on longterm medical costs and preventive healthcare.

Thanks for your excellent program,

Mary Agee

I live in Vermont, where there is high unemployment yet the people and resources to support growth in green energy. Should the government focus on creating projects in the areas need jobs most? What if other areas are better suited for these projects, yet already have an ample supply of jobs? How should the government best allocate these projects?

Thank you,

Joanne Jastatt

There are obvious immediate needs that America has, but even the short term plans need to keep a framework of long term goals in mind. Does anyone know what that is or should be? More importantly, how will our government implement it all effectively and efficiently? Who gets to decide and who should?

There’s NO SENSE in repairing or improving our existing infrastructure if we merely perpetuate America’s love affair with the gas-guzzling, or biofuel-guzzling single-family automobile — no matter HOW “green” we make the private car.

To do that, we need to think beyond “green” — we need to give the American consumer reason and incentive to CONSERVE resources, so that we all support rather than scoff at, or more likely fight, new initiatives.

The best, simplest and smartest way to do that is to raise the federal gasoline tax, which currently is a token 18.4 PENNIES. And we need to raise it now as plummeting gas prices will barely be noticed by the average driver. If this proves too great a jolt to the American psyche, a tax increase could be phased in, to give us this nation the shot across the bow and the wake-up call we all desperately seem to need. But whatever the plan, we need to start the process now or suffer the consequences of postponing the inevitable.

Pakistan is the hot bed of Jihadi Terror. Whether it was 9/11, or Nuclear leak to Iran, war in Afghanisatan, it has been aiding and abetting terrorism. The world has been fooled by the double speak of its government and Miltary. ISI is the root of global terrorism. When will the world see the truth and get rid off the root cause of terrorism! These people also killed Daniel Pearl a guy who was also on the trail of terrorists who were plotting 9/11!

So what we are talking about is how best to reshape government spending to achieve domestic priorities. Such goals are over-due. The roughly $1 Trillion spent on the war in Iraq could have been spent to jump-start our economy and help our country traverse the gap to a New Energy Age, should we have had a different group of policymakers in charge in Washington.

Some would argue that FDR did not rebuild the US economy after The Great Depression by use of his policies of intervention and government spending. But most will agree that FDR managed to keep the US afloat until The Next Great Task of WWII arrived — FDR got the country to the launchpad. It was WWII and the process of building manufacturing capacity that retooled the US economy and transformed it into the economic and military power it became.

In my view the Next Great Task is to help the US cross the bridges necessary to greet a New Energy Age while protecting and repairing the environment and taking care of peoples throughout the globe — plenty of potential jobs there. Increasing funding to states and local authorities is the best way to concentrate on domestic priorities and develop the multiple models we will need to find success. So we need to jump-start the economy and rebuild infrastructure along these lines.

I have proposed US tax policy changes to achieve more funding for states and local authorities in my October 2008 report, “Reshaping Government Spending”. In most state and local governments, the wheels are coming off the bus because of unfunded domestic needs. The cohesiveness of communities is part of the process of rebuilding infrastructure, and neglect is causing increasing damage to a basic micro-economic building block. President Elect Obama’s team seems to be searching for a way to deliver on this agenda. My policy suggestions provide an avenue to reach their goals. Please visit my website and comment.

George
Milton, Massachusetts
Gemand Consulting LLC
http://www.GemandConsulting.com

Tom,

Listening to this very important discussion I noticed that the focus of the infrustucture was in urban areas. Rual America need to be caught up and brought into this century. High Speed internet to every house in America; Cell phone coverage reaching deep in to the woods, an options for rual commuters to get to work.

Living in a rual state, Vermont, I would like to know if there are conversations about infrustucture spending in rual America.

Peter McLyman

There may be good intentions by Obama. I’ll stick to the facts, moneys will be appropriated by congress, maybe I’m missing something, but those who thinks this money will be used wisely are seriously deluding themselves.

I agree with Obama’s comments regarding the long-term approach to building a sustainable US future and economy. He would inspire many if he began at the White House creating a completely sustainable complex.

For example, in an affluant community south of Boston, with the aid of a wind turbine, solar panels, and geothermic wells there are homes going completely self sustainable and nearly carbon-free. Although extremely expensive at the moment, as we have seen with other technological breakthroughs, a greater investment into these ideals will equate to eventual lower costs making this and similar technology more of a viable option for both residential and commercial applications.

The construction industry is perhaps the most behind-the-times one in the US, so business as usual won’t make it an effective stimulus nor can we afford this waste.

In a recent op-ed in Engineering News Record, I argued that a “Bridge 2.0 approach, in which we’d use Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and RSS feeds could dramatically reduce the amount of time needed for the regulatory processes (while actually increasing opportunities for public participation in environmental reviews, etc.!), improve scheduling, and make the process transparent, to rebuild public faith in government. It’s an approach that I believe is essential given the need to simultaneously create jobs quickly while reducing spending.
W. David Stephenson
Stephenson Strategies

In response to Peter McLyman in VT, I live in a rural area in West Texas where there has been a push during the past decade or more to give much greater higher education opportunities to rural students. Locally, a small campus is being built this minute. It’s nothing like what I’ve seen in a college — as a New Englander, I’m used to the sprawling campuses of, say, Harvard and Smith. This is nothing more than a series of small buildings with state-of-the-art computer connections to classes in the three major universities around the state + one well-regarded Austin community college. These institutions sponsor this effort jointly. One has to wonder how much better it would be if we had state-of-the-art broadband service throughout the rural counties this campus serves.

The implications of this kind of home-based education becoming available more widely (with, of course, occasional trips to the various university campuses) at both undergraduate and graduate levels are enormous for all of us living here, not just in terms of jobs for us and opportunities for our kids, but in terms of the opening of a blue highway rural area to multilevel, readily accessible educational and cultural opportunities that would be difficult for many to have access to otherwise. This is probably being done in other rural areas but it’s the first time I’ve seen it up close and friendly. I’m impressed by what this joint effort has achieved so far as well as by its potential.

I agree with the commenters above that focus on rural needs like complete cell phone coverage and improved broadband access is really necessary. I come from a rural background but I’m temporarily living abroad in Turkey, a still-developing country, and people here are amazed when I tell them there are places in the US (even in my home state of NY) where mobile phones don’t work and people are using dialup for internet access. Infrastructure is not just roads – it’s “virtual roads” as well. Please think about this for a future show topic.

There was much discussion on the program about moving us into the 21-st century. How about a bolder move, and just bringing us up to the 20-th century: let’s finally adopt the metric system. It is the standard of measurement that the entire world adopted last century. We’re the only ones left behind in the dubious company of two other laggards: Liberia and Myanmar. The Federal government should have mandate the exclusive use of metric in the upcoming infrastructure projects. As part of the infrastructure improvements, all roads and speed limits should be relabeled in km and km/h respectively. Treat it as a one time upgrade that finally allows us to catch up with the rest of the world. And about the inevitable argument that this will be expensive: a mandated conversion will bring innumerable jobs, along with generating heretofore lost business with wolrdwide customers. Many foreign firms steer clear of the US because we refuse to work in metric. Similarly, many domestic firms (like Boeing) force the oursourced precision work to be done in our medieval measurements, which leads to countless errors. Witness the lates foibles of the Dreamliner.

Infrastructure projects, whether they be roads, bridges, rails, greenways, etc., should be restricted to those areas where the project will reduce unemployment. States who want money for projects that will cost premium prices because of a shortage of labor, materials, bidders, etc. should pay the difference between normal charges for materials and labor and the premium charges. In addition, states should be required to have sufficient revenue staff to maximize collection of state income,sales and business taxes. Federal taxpayer funds should not subsidize an inefficient state revenue collection system.

Whatever kind of infrastructure we will eventually decide to build and/or spend money on, I would really like to see an emphasis put on universal design in the structuring – people with disabilities and the growing baby boomer population deserve to have buildings, roads, and various other public services that are accessible to them as well as the able-bodied community. Instead of putting luxury boxes on the U of Michigan Stadium, it would have been more beneficial to put in federally mandated accessible seats. Even some of the NEW buildings being put up with federally regulated money on our campus are not accessible.

Excellent program and an essential topic at just the right time. So why was it cut short? On WAMU in Washington, DC the program was approximately 30 minutes long (not the hour long show it should be). The remaining half hour was filled in with music? What happened?

[...] listening to On Point’s December 4 show on American infrastructure, I was reminded of a comment in the tet-a-tet between the now infamous [...]

Follow the $:

1. Military industries create wars and use funds that should be appropriated to national/municipal projects e.g. buildings (schools, hospitals, etc.), roadways, railways, airports, etc.

2. MOXXON does not want you riding anything but your SUV/mini van and they have the means to coerce U.S. auto corporations to keep fuel efficiency low and keep them selling you SUVs and mini vans.

3. Our soldiers have been sacrificed in Mesopotamia to take control the huge proven petroleum reserves there, to continue the use of hydrocarbon energy and create wealth for the military industrialists .

4. The rape of M1 by Wall St. “investment” con artists has been designed to “fleece the flock,” which in turn causes us to borrow the money to replace what they stole which will create rampant inflation and a financial panic, which in turn creates a cowering flock (you & I) unable to revolt against the injustice and theft of our money supply, which btw, is just worthless paper, thanks to the Federal Reserve Bank (a private corporation).