Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

New at Reason: Looking Back at the Last Year in Toll Roads, HOT Lanes, Infrastructure Finance

April 8, 2013, 9:00am

Leonard Gilroy

The rollout of Reason Foundation's Annual Privatization Report 2013 continues today with the release of the Surface Transportation section, which provides a comprehensive overview of the latest on toll roads, HOT lanes and other news on privatization and public-private partnerships in surface transportation.

Creating a Managed Lanes Network in Atlanta

Interview with GDOT Deputy Commissioner Todd Long, incoming SRTA Executive Director Chris Tomlinson and SRTA Director of Operations Steve Corbin

March 19, 2013

Baruch Feigenbaum

In March 2013, Reason Foundation Transportation Policy Analyst Baruch Feigenbaum interviewed GDOT Deputy Commissioner Todd Long, incoming SRTA Executive Director Chris Tomlinson and SRTA Director of Operations Steve Corbin to discuss the concept of Managed Lanes, current operations and future plans for the network.

How to Reform and Get More Value From Federal Transportation Programs

January 9, 2013, 1:00pm

Robert Poole

As Congress grapples with impending budget cuts, we need to do a fundamental rethink of how the federal government assists with much-needed transportation infrastructure. The reality going forward is that there will be no such thing as “general revenue” funding for much of anything beyond entitlements, defense, and interest on the national debt. As long as the federal budget remains grossly unbalanced, general-fund investments in infrastructure are essentially borrowed from China—an unsustainable situation.

Three key principles are necessary for a sustainable federal role in infrastructure:
1. Users should pay for the infrastructure they use;
2. Large capital projects should be financed, via revenue bonds and other mechanisms; and,
3. The federal role should be narrowed to do only things that are truly interstate in nature, which means shifting more responsibility to the states, metro areas, and the private sector.

Reducing Traffic Congestion and Increasing Mobility in Chicago

The transportation projects that will reduce congestion in Chicago and how to pay for them

July 19, 2012

Samuel Staley, Adrian Moore

A new study finds Chicago has severely underinvested in expressways and urges the region to embark on an ambitious long-term road-building plan. The Reason Foundation's Galvin Mobility Project plan proposes 11 major transportation projects that would add 2,401 new lane miles of expressways in the region, reduce the time that Chicagoans spend stuck in traffic by 90 million hours a year and add $2 billion a year to the regional economy by 2040.   

“Expressways make up just 18 percent of the Chicago region’s road network and yet they handle over 53 percent of the vehicle miles traveled,” said Reason Foundation Vice President Adrian Moore, the study’s project director who served on Congress’ National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission. “Between 1982 and 2010 travel demand increased 126 percent on expressways but the number of lane miles increased by just 57 percent.”

The plan’s 11 projects, which would cost $52 billion to build, could be financed entirely by toll revenues from the new lanes and roads, meaning drivers and businesses would get major infrastructure upgrades and new transportation choices without tax increases.  

 

$52 Billion Plan to Reduce Traffic Congestion In Chicago

July 19, 2012, 10:00am

The plan’s 11 projects, which would cost $52 billion to build, could be financed entirely by toll revenues from the new lanes and roads, meaning drivers and businesses would get major infrastructure upgrades and new transportation choices without tax increases.

Washington's Road to Economic Decline

April 12, 2012, 4:55pm

Adrian Moore

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