Break the Political Traffic Jam on Transportation Overhaul

The Highway Trust Fund—created to build the Interstate System—is now a pot of fuel tax revenue that Congress fights over how to divide every six years. Meanwhile, the nation's transportation system has been allowed to deteriorate as the rate of the fuel tax has remained stagnant and resources misdirected. This week's fatal Washington metro collision suggests that perhaps we have not been allocating our resources effectively to make the appropriate safety improvements, for example.

When federal funding is raised and distributed for political purposes—not national purposes—this result is not surprising. As members of Congress move to authorize a new six-year transportation bill, they are presented with a rare bipartisan opportunity to restore this sense of national purpose. The current law, known as SAFETEA-LU, has become a symbol for all that is wrong in government—loaded with earmarks such as the Bridge to Nowhere, it includes zero accountability for results. Full-blown reform is needed, indeed being demanded, by virtually everybody with a stake in transportation policy.

As the Bipartisan Policy Center's recent transportation policy report proposes, a new vision for transportation policy must define clear national goals, set performance measures to evaluate those goals, and then make sure recipients of federal funds are held accountable for meeting the performance measures. Seems simple enough; but it is actually quite difficult to get Congress to agree on a national purpose if that national purpose will be directly linked to funding. Congress has a vested interest in seeing transportation dollars distributed according to political calculations.

Unfortunately, the nation cannot survive economically if this continues to be the case. Under the Bipartisan Policy Center's approach, people will ultimately have more transportation options, the cost of goods and services will decline as traffic congestion is reduced, and the transportation system will become safer. Competing in the global economy will require transportation investment decisions to be made wisely and on the basis of maximum economic, energy, environmental, and safety benefits. Countries that make poor investments based on outmoded thinking are destined to fall behind those that make smart, cutting-edge technological investments that deliver the most for our money.

The U.S. has the ability to be the leader in this area, as we have been in the past. But only if we put aside regional, partisan, and ideological interests and focus on the greater national good.

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