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GAO Study Encourages National Transportation Goals and Multiple Financing Options
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently convened a forum of government, academic, and transportation experts from around the country to discuss the need to transform transportation policies, and released a report of their findings. The report cites the need to address transportation funding immediately by redefining federal goals to produce accountable outcomes, and by enacting a variety of funding mechanisms to address transportation shortfalls.
The study said that the nation’s transportation policies have lost focus and a redefinition of transportation goals is in order. Current federal policies can be contradictory and there is no way to measure progress towards meeting goals. The GAO study concludes that the federal government’s role should be to establish policies that set and reach consistent goals.
The study also looked at funding solutions and suggests that policies be set that align fees and taxes with use and benefits, and encourage a seamless multi-modal transportation system. Several options cited include congestion pricing, toll roads, public-private partnerships, and indexing the gasoline tax.
The report noted that the nation’s transportation funding shortfall is so great that the country’s people and businesses will feel the effects in the near future. The report also suggested that transportation issues are not well understood by the public or private sector, and that these issues should be clearly articulated to the American public.
Read the full report, or a summary.
