At the start of a new year we all have travelled far and wide, near and far to return to the great city of Norman. We have driven over long stretches of asphalt and concrete, and cruised over bridges and overpasses to resume our goals of completing our college education. During our journey, between talking on our cell phones (using Bluetooth, I’m sure), and full on lip-synching whatever song some sensitive dude with a guitar was playing on the radio, did you happen to notice that America’s infrastructure is crumbling?
The National Highway Trust Fund Act has been in the red for a while now. An unwillingness of Congress to raise fuel tax rates, increased fuel efficiency of later model vehicles and high gas prices causing commuters to assess and deliberate every trip for necessity has left America with an accumulation of pot-holed highways as well as stressed bridges and overpasses.
The inadequacies of the integrity of our highway infrastructure has also, left this strapped (I refuse to say that I am poor) graduate student with needed repairs to my car.
Because the National Highway Trust is bankrupt and a pothole on I-35 wasn’t fixed, I have to consider doing the running man in 100-degree weather to entice passersby to buy a pizza so I can pay to fix my car.
When Dwight Eisenhower pushed for a national highway system he did so with the intention of creating a system to easily disperse needed goods for national defense.
And not long after, the highway system became a way of moving commercial goods and services throughout the country stimulating our national economy in the 1960s and 1970s. It was all good back then; our parents had their leisure suits, vinyl records and Pong. They also didn’t have to worry about bridges collapsing because the government couldn’t afford to maintain the nuts and bolts.
As I have learned in life, most things are dynamic, not static. Highway funding methods should be dynamic also. Gone should be the days when a trip back home or a trip to see your grandmother who lives six hours away at the edge of nowhere should be thought of as ostensibly free.
In the grand scheme of things the damage to my car was nominal. However, you only have to remember what happened further north on the same interstate, in Minnesota, to see how things could really become costly.
It’s clear to see that something needs to be done to generate more revenue for highway funding, and if you think it’s not, just look at the axel on my Mazda.
I, for one, believe it is time for the government to allow private companies to purchase, build, fund and operate tolls along America’s interstates.
Joseph Giglio the author of “Mobility: America’s Transportation Mess and How to Fix It,” agrees, having stated, “Technology exists that will allow us to embrace user fees to bridge the gap between transportation needs and available resources.”
Tolling our interstate system would generate the revenue needed to adequately maintain our infrastructure.
Roads would be smooth and we would not have to pray every time we see an 18 wheeler driving on the bridge we are about to pass under. Be honest; I know I am not the only person who does it.
Private companies would be more efficient in administration and operations, and they would spur technological and design innovation while infusing states and municipalities with much needed capital to fund other projects. Not as important to some, I guess, is that the privatization of our interstates would create jobs, one of which I might get.
Of course, the tolling of interstates may leave some without access and would add another charge to increasingly longer commutes. But how much more would we really pay considering the amount we already pay in maintenance costs to fix our vehicles so badly damaged from the roads we drive on?
I know I’d rather pay the toll than dance in an attempt to get you to buy a pizza.
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kdbp1213 2 years, 9 months ago
we don't need to be taxed more. we need Big Brother to wisely spend our taxes..........
bruenig 2 years, 9 months ago
There is absolultey no evidence to say "Private companies would be moer efficient in administration and operations." If anything, you need to look no further than health insurance companies to realize that such a statement is far from a truism. The administration and operations of these companies consume 30% of their revenue in overhead costs and profit, while government health insurance programs like Medicare consume 4% of their revenue in overhead costs and obviously make no profit.
I think tolls are a fundamentally bad idea because they represent a regressive tax that impacts the poor more than the wealthy. The poor often are forced to have longer commutes because they cannot afford housing closer to the urban centers that they work in. This means that not only will they have to pay a larger percentage of their income in tolls (given that they make less), but they will have to pay a larger absolute sum for tolls given that they will have to use the highways more.
Why not just tax people more and spend it to improve highways? Your whole column seems to be an attempt to get around the fact that the politicians wont do it right to begin with. If you want more public goods, then you need to tax more. Simple as that.
At the very least, have tolls run by the state itself. This will at least insure that citizen-owned things remain in our hands. Neoliberal privatization enriches a few in the short-term but impoverishes many in the long term.
oumotorcyclist 2 years, 9 months ago
While I agree with bruenig, I see a bigger issue with this private toll system than taxation philosophy and administrative efficiency.
I was recently at a large 2 p.m. to midnight concert in Dallas that did not allow re-entry into the facility. The main substantive food that was avaialbe was sold at a Papa John's stand that charged $9.50 for a piece of pizza the size of my average sized hand.
A privatized toll system would likely have no real competition and very loose regulation from other entities. High tolls could be justified by the response of "if you don't want to pay the toll, you can go around some other way." The company would probably still make a profit on the venture even if traffic along the road decreased, but the diverted traffic would likely go along surface roads, which are still maintained using tax dollars.
This type of venture would require some sort of oversight by some governing body, which would likely require tax funds to manage and would cause beurocratic issues to arise between government and industry, whereas the current system at least keeps the bickering in-house.
TheJeff 2 years, 9 months ago
"If you want more public goods, then you need to tax more. Simple as that."
It is not as simple as that. Throwing money into a broken system wastes money. In the end higher taxes, and in the case of public schools, a different tax scheme than property taxes, may be necessary, but systemic problems have to be taken care of before increased funding can help.
As for the highways, while I'm all for privatization, I think that basic infrastructure is so vital to wealth of the nation, the government should provide for at least one means.