Reason Foundation

Recent Research and Commentary

Is the Goal to Reduce Emissions, Fuel Use or Mobility?

June 15, 2009, 5:05pm

Robert Poole

Suffice it to say that if the goal is to reduce CO2 or petroleum use, Congress should target those things directly.

Transit Funding Could Come from the General Fund, Not the Highway Trust Fund

June 12, 2009, 8:01am

Robert Poole

My friend and colleague Alan Pisarski last week proposed what I think is a very promising—if radical—idea. “If we are going to need an infusion from the general fund, and we also need more total funding, why not ‘resolve’ the question of share by avoiding the question? Transfer the transit program 100 percent to the general fund and use all the Highway Trust Fund for highways. It might be a win-win.”

Learning From Abroad: Public-Private Partnerships Building Highways Overseas

June 12, 2009, 7:00am

Robert Poole

Some of the recent U.S. debates about public-private partnerships for highways sound as if the idea is brand new, untried, and hence inherently risky. Yet long-term concession agreements under which the private sector can design, finance, build, operate, and maintain major highways, bridges, and tunnels date back to the 1960s in Europe and the 1990s in Australia.

President Obama vs. The Beach Boys

June 11, 2009, 5:59pm

Robert Poole

As a long-time Beach Boys fan, and as still a bit of a car buff, I was intrigued by this headline on Daniel Henninger’s Wall Street Journal column of May 28, 2009. Basically, the column was a lament for what Henninger sees as the passing of America’s car culture, as most recently epitomized by the idea that the Obama administration’s new 39 mpg CAFÉ standard is an “everybody wins” policy.

Performance-Based Transportation Spending and Policy

June 11, 2009, 5:27pm

Robert Poole

I am all in favor of performance-based funding, wherever this can possibly be done. But throwing out—rather than strengthening—the user-pays/user-benefits principle is too high a price to pay. A better course would be to shame Congress into creating accountable, performance-based funding within existing modal programs.

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Without Reducing Mobility

Focusing on cutting vehicle miles traveled is the wrong approach

June 9, 2009

Robert Poole

All of transportation (including trucking, airlines, barges, etc.) contributes 27.9 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Personal vehicles (cars and light trucks) are 61 percent of that; hence, personal vehicles are the source of 17 percent of GHGs, not one-third, as you will often hear.  Second, greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles are a function of speed. Stop-and-go driving (as in congestion) produces much greater GHG emissions than steady-speed driving between 30 and 60 miles per hour; above about 60 mph, GHGs increase fairly rapidly.

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