Funding system “broken”

Antiquated system favors roads

Steve Hawley, May 06, 09.

The US risks “squandering” its transportation stimulus investments because it has not reformed its antiquated funding system, according to a Reuters article.

“The federal transportation funding system is broken, it’s just broken,” said Robin Holzer, chair of the Citizens’ Transportation Coalition, a Houston advocacy group. Holzer spoke at the Reuters Infrastructure Summit on Wednesday.

The article notes that under the current system, the federal government funds 80 percent of highway projects but only 50 percent of transit projects.

Holzer cited Houston’s proposed 180-mile Grand Parkway as an example of the funding flaws. While it serves a sparsely populated area, the road, which is projected to cost about $5 billion, could eligible to receive up to 80 percent of its funding from the federal government. However, contrary to the article’s claims, local officials have indicated many times that the Grand Parkway would be funded through local bonds secured by toll revenues. Segment E of the Grand Parkway, though, is expected to receive $181 million in federal stimulus funding.

The city’s light rail system, by comparison, serves a dense urban area and is the second-busiest line in the country in terms of boardings per mile, with almost 40,000 daily boardings on less than eight miles of track. However, the project was only eligible for 50 percent federal funding. The four expansion lines scheduled to open in 2012 are likewise limited.

Transit projects also face extra obstacles that highways do not, Holzer noted. The light rail system required voter approval as well as a strict cost-benefit analysis, steps which the Grand Parkway does not need. Holzer said that the US transit funding process should be streamlined, and that the country needs to invest in a variety of transportation alternatives.

In a recent commentary piece in Public Discourse, David Schaengold agreed that the transportation funding system is flawed, saying, “A common misperception is that the current American state of auto-dependency is a result of the free market doing its work. In fact, a variety of government interventions ensure that the transportation ‘market’ is skewed towards car-ownership.”

And in a March post, Christof Spieler of the Citizens’ Transportation Coalition described in detail the disparities between federal highway and transit spending.