Transportation Funding

commentary

Navigating Speed Bumps to a Possible Federal Vehicle Miles Traveled Fee

It's been clear for years that the gas tax has been losing its ability to pay for America's existing roads and bridges, let alone improvements and new construction. A vehicle miles traveled fee could provide a potential option for a 21st-century transportation funding system.

Liisa Ecola, Laura Patton

commentary

COVID-19: The Questions Ahead for Future Travel and Transport

COVID-19 could have lasting effects on future travel patterns. Future scenarios, a method for visualizing different possible futures, can help inform decisions in deeply uncertain situations and can be used to think about policies that are important for people's quality of life regardless of how the future unfolds.

Charlene Rohr

blog

Hospital Prices, Border Solutions, Sri Lanka: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on hospital prices, common-sense solutions to the border crisis, myths about the Sri Lanka attacks, and more.

commentary

The Long Game on Infrastructure

The Trump administration recently announced its Legislative Outline for Rebuilding Infrastructure in America. With its lack of new federal funding, the plan may not be the best path to fixing America's most serious regional, national, and long-term problems.

Debra Knopman, Martin Wachs

commentary

Regulating Infrastructures in the Tropics

Regulation helps address the demands of investors who are seeking assurances that their investments are safe, while also reassuring democratically elected governments. Regulatory reform could help Brazil attract more private investment in its infrastructure.

Christian Van Stolk, Daniel Schweppenstedde, et al.

commentary

The Road Ahead: Rebuilding the Country's Infrastructure in the Trump Administration Era

Policymakers generally agree on the need to rebuild America's infrastructure. But the country is far behind in this area. Why? Transportation projects take time and money. And it's hard to predict how a project will affect its surroundings.

Liisa Ecola

commentary

Why Selling Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Is a Bad Idea

Some lawmakers are proposing a sell-off of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to finance highway and bridge work. This is a shortsighted strategy.

Keith Crane

blog

The 2015 Summer Reading List for Congress

With Capitol Hill slowing for August recess, this list of must-read research and commentaries will help ensure that policymakers are ready to dive right back in this fall.

commentary

Pay as You Go

Using vehicle miles traveled as a means of distributing the cost of maintaining America's roads and bridges may not be the only answer, but it represents the kind of innovative thinking that is necessary at a time when this sector of the American transportation infrastructure is desperately in need of a fix.

Liisa Ecola

commentary

How to Improve Oregon's Mileage-Fee Experiment

Oregon is rolling out the nation's first large-scale pilot to examine switching to a mileage fee instead of the gas tax. The trial is a welcome next step toward understanding how mileage fees can be deployed.

Liisa Ecola, Laura Patton

blog

A Summer Reading List for Congress

No matter how policymakers spend their break—meeting with home-state constituents, traveling abroad with congressional delegations, or spending time with family—this summer reading list contains policy ideas that can help them hit the ground running when they return.

commentary

Make HOT Lanes Permanent

The first HOT lanes in L.A. have improved traffic flow and travel time reliability, are fair to users of the facilities, have improved transit service and have generated revenue needed to fund those improvements from voluntary toll payments.

Martin Wachs, Brian D. Taylor

commentary

As U.S. Energy Booms, Don't Forget About Roadway Infrastructure

Natural gas production is growing and many states and communities are reaping the economic benefits. One of the costs, however, will be damage to roads. One hydraulic fracturing operation requires about 600 to 1,100 one-way, heavy truck trips to bring equipment, materials, and sometimes water to and from a well site.

Constantine Samaras

blog

What Mobility Might Look Like in the U.S. in 2030

Mobility — the ability to travel from one location to another — may look very different in the United States in the year 2030. Three key drivers differentiate possible scenarios: the price of oil, the development of environmental regulations, and the amount of highway revenues and expenditures.

commentary

Paying for Infrastructure, a Taxing Issue

If the user pays idea is worth saving, the United States needs a different calculation, writes Liisa Ecola. Some states are looking at mileage fees. With mileage fees, you pay based on the number of miles you drive, rather than the number of gallons of gas used.

Liisa Ecola

commentary

Consider Taxing Miles Traveled

Mileage-fee rates could be structured to reduce congestion, harmful emissions and excessive road wear, and the enabling technology could support a range of value-added services offering greater convenience and safety for motorists, writes Keith Crane.

Keith Crane

commentary

Does U.S. Gas Tax Still Make Sense?

It's time to consider changing the country's transportation funding scheme from one based on gallons purchased to one based on vehicle miles actually traveled, writes Liisa Ecola.

Liisa Ecola

commentary

In Support of the Congestion Charge

In Support of the Congestion Charge, in Washingtonpost.com

Cameron Munro

commentary

Paying for Our Transportation Needs

Published commentary by RAND staff: Paying for Our Transportation Needs, in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Martin Wachs