Robert Poole is Director of Transportation Policy and Searle Freedom Trust Transportation Fellow at Reason Foundation.
Poole, an MIT-trained engineer, advised the Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations on infrastructure issues.
Surface Transportation
In the field of surface transportation, Poole has advised the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, the White House Office of Policy Development, National Economic Council, Government Accountability Office, and state DOTs in numerous states.
Poole's 1988 policy paper proposing privately financed toll lanes to relieve congestion directly inspired California's landmark private tollway law (AB 680), which authorized four pilot toll projects including the successful 91 Express Lanes in Orange County. More than 20 other states and the federal government have since enacted similar public-private partnership legislation. In 1993, Poole oversaw a study that coined the term HOT (high-occupancy toll) Lanes, a term which has become widely accepted since.
California Gov. Pete Wilson appointed Poole to the California's Commission on Transportation Investment and he also served on the Caltrans Privatization Advisory Steering Committee, where he helped oversee the implementation of AB 680.
From 2003 to 2005, he was a member of the Transportation Research Board's special committee on the long-term viability of the fuel tax for highway finance. In 2008 he served as a member of the Texas Study Committee on Private Participation in Toll Roads, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry. In 2009, he was a member of an Expert Review Panel for Washington State DOT, advising on a $1.5 billion toll mega-project. In 2010, he was a member of the transportation transition team for Florida's Governor-elect Rick Scott. He is a member of two TRB standing committees: Congestion Pricing and Managed Lanes.
Aviation
Poole is a member of the Government Accountability Office's National Aviation Studies Advisory Panel and he has testified before the House and Senate's aviation subcommittees on numerous occasions. Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Poole consulted the White House Domestic Policy Council and the leadership of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.
He has also advised the Federal Aviation Administration, Office of the Secretary of Transportation, White House Office of Policy Development, National Performance Review, National Economic Council, and the National Civil Aviation Review Commission on aviation issues. Poole is a member of the Critical Infrastructure Council of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation and of the Air Traffic Control Association.
Poole was among the first to propose the commercialization of the U.S. air traffic control system, and his work in this field has helped shape proposals for a U.S. air traffic control corporation. A version of his corporation concept was implemented in Canada in 1996 and was more recently endorsed by several former top FAA administrators.
Poole's studies also launched a national debate on airport privatization in the United States. He advised both the FAA and local officials during the 1989-90 controversy over the proposed privatization of Albany (NY) Airport. His policy research on this issue helped inspire Congress' 1996 enactment of the Airport Privatization Pilot Program and the privatization of Indianapolis' airport management under Mayor Steve Goldsmith.
General Background
Robert Poole co-founded the Reason Foundation with Manny Klausner and Tibor Machan in 1978, and served as its president and CEO from then until the end of 2000. He was a member of the Bush-Cheney transition team in 2000. Over the years, he has advised the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations on privatization and transportation policy.
Poole is credited as the first person to use the term "privatization" to refer to the contracting-out of public services and is the author of the first-ever book on privatization, Cutting Back City Hall, published by Universe Books in 1980. He is also editor of the books Instead of Regulation: Alternatives to Federal Regulatory Agencies (Lexington Books, 1981), Defending a Free Society (Lexington Books, 1984), and Unnatural Monopolies (Lexington Books, 1985). He also co-edited the book Free Minds & Free Markets: 25 Years of Reason (Pacific Research Institute, 1993).
Poole has written hundreds of articles, papers, and policy studies on privatization and transportation issues. His popular writings have appeared in national newspapers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and numerous other publications. He has also been a guest on network television programs such as Good Morning America, NBC's Nightly News, ABC's World News Tonight, and the CBS Evening News. Poole writes a monthly column on transportation issues for Public Works Financing.
Poole earned his B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and did graduate work in operations research at New York University.
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Air traffic control as a public utility
The case for changing the way air traffic control is provided in the United States.
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Countering attacks on private sector investment in infrastructure projects
Private infrastructure investment firms have a good track record of funding large projects, guaranteeing long-term maintenance, and pioneering innovation.
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Recommendations for the FAA reauthorization bill
Congress should encourage the adoption of space-based ADS-B in air traffic control, the deployment of remote air traffic control towers, and more.
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Surface Transportation News: Transportation finance report, automated transit progress, and more
Plus: Public-private partnership toll roads, rethinking U.S. electrification strategy, and more.
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Using DBFOM public-private partnerships benefits drivers, states and transportation contractors
Strategic use of design-build-finance-operate-maintain public-private partnerships for major transportation projects considerably expands the total money available for transportation infrastructure.
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Annual Privatization Report 2023 — Transportation Finance
This report reviews developments in the infrastructure investment fund world, focusing on transportation infrastructure.
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Aviation Policy News: Global airport privatization, air traffic control reform comeback, and more
Plus: Addressing near-misses at U.S. airports, FAA's problem with remote towers, and more.
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Surface Transportation News: Annual Highway Report, the feasibility of net zero by 2050, and more
Plus: Toll evasion with all-electronic tolling, a national per-mile user fee pilot, and more.
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The trucking industry is increasingly examining mileage-based user fee options
The trucking industry has begun to acknowledge the impending decline of fuel-tax revenues.
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Tolling and mileage-based user fees would help produce better highways for Michigan
Michigan's highways need fixing, but the state is woefully short of the transportation funding required.
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Aviation Policy News: Airport congestion and summer travel delays
Plus: The FAA's broken budget, the remote tower debacle, new technology for runway incursions, and more.
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Surface Transportation News: Hydrogen fuel cells, automated trucking, and more
Plus: Transit contracting, commuting data, electric vehicles to power the grid, and more.
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Examining the trucking industry’s opposition to tolling highways
Three of trucking’s four main concerns about tolling are valid—and fixable by legislation.
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Aviation Policy News: FAA giving up on remote towers, troubling near-misses, and more
Plus: The JetBlue/Spirit merger, power outages shutdown airports, and more.
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Sustainable highway funding requires charging the drivers who use them
The true costs of building and maintaining highways and bridges should be paid for by those who use them.
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Surface Transportation News: Ohio train derailment, induced demand and urban freeway expansion, and more
Plus: Hyperloop startups losing ground, fixing major truck bottlenecks, and more.
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Tolling value proposition for trucking and state departments of transportation
The question addressed in this paper is whether toll-financed interstate highway modernization could overcome the long-standing objections of the trucking industry, as well as concerns of state DOTs about the coming decline in fuel tax revenues.
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Aviation Policy News: Airlines and FAA ignored rules after near misses on runways, junk fees in Congress, and more
Plus: eVTOLs, Germany's superior landing system, diverging on electrification, and more.