Robert Poole
Director of Transportation Policy, Reason Foundation
Robert Poole is director of transportation policy and Searle Freedom Trust Transportation Fellow at Reason Foundation.
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The last gasp of 20th-century NASA
The new space paradigm means NASA should buy services from the rapidly developing competitive marketplace, not through its traditional procurement process.
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Dealing with public opposition to new tolls
The current 20th-century funding system disguises the real cost of building and operating major highways and bridges.
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Public pension funds and public-private partnerships could increase funding for transportation infrastructure
Public pension funds could invest in public-private partnerships that produce more greenfield and brownfield transportation projects across the United States.
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Why Michigan should replace gas taxes with mileage-based user fees
State policymakers should start thinking about a permanent replacement for the gas tax, such as mileage-based user fees.
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Shifting away from gas taxes to modernize Interstate highways
About a dozen states have conducted federally-assisted pilot projects in which motorists and truckers tested mileage-based user fees.
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Lessons from San Diego’s proposed mileage fee
Mileage-based user fees should replace gas taxes, not be added to existing fuel taxes.
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Growing agreement that government regulations are driving up the costs of vital infrastructure
We may have an unprecedented opportunity to reform the National Environmental Policy Act.
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Finding ways to finance the reconstruction of America’s bridges
The Mobile River Bridge in Alabama is just one of many major bridges that need to be replaced with modern facilities.
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FAA and FCC failures played key roles 5G rollout problems
Full cooperation between aviation safety regulators and telecommunications regulators enabled 5G towers to be placed with adequate distance from runways in Europe.
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The bipartisan infrastructure law is likely to drive up costs and restrict highway expansion in growing states
The law could also undermine the Biden administration’s own climate change priorities.
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I-95 fiasco shows lack of proper stewardship is an ongoing problem for highways
Highways should be understood and managed as utility businesses, comparable to electric, gas, water, and telecommunications utilities.
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Getting to ‘yes’ on toll-financed Interstate reconstruction
Customer-friendly tolling is the trucking industry's least-bad alternative—and perhaps the only feasible alternative —for funding the needed rebuilding of Interstate highways.
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Maryland P3 express lanes project will help roadways, taxpayers
Maryland's P3 project will be financed based on tolls that commuters choose to pay, and the risk of insufficient traffic and revenue will be borne by the P3 company, not Maryland taxpayers.
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Examining the causes of cost overruns on rail and road projects
The average rail project cost 40% more than estimated and its benefits were only 66% of what was projected.
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Proposed electric vehicles tax credit prioritizes labor unions over carbon reduction goals
By trying to push buyers to union-assembled cars, Congress risks slowing the shift to electric vehicles and undercutting the carbon reduction goals it is trying to achieve.
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The important economic factors rarely mentioned in infrastructure debates
All large infrastructure projects should be vetted via a rigorous benefit/cost analysis.
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Infrastructure funds are ready to invest in US airports
This public-private partnership airport lease model has about a 30-year track record worldwide. It’s overdue to start getting adopted in the United States.
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Federal ban on commercial rest areas hurts drivers, truckers, and the future of electric vehicles
State transportation departments and the private sector are ready, willing, and able to meet the needs of electric vehicles, drivers, truckers and to provide much better services on the Interstates.