Transportation Mess

In the 1950s, a trend developed that set the course for a transportation disaster...suburbs. Today a study came out that outlined how to save America's transportation infrastructure. The answer, was of course, raise taxes, specifically gas taxes. The funny thing, the answer probably would work. Raise gas taxes 40 cents over 5 years. Many economist and public policy experts believe that if you raise gas taxes (many want to raise it even higher), you would cut the demand for gas, because people would use other forms of transportation. There is only one problem: There are no other forms of transportation in America.

Sure, some of the major (and I mean major) cities have a decent mass transit system, such as New York or Chicago. Also, in major cities you can walk to work. What about the rest of the country? How are average workers going to get the twenty or thirty miles from their suburban house to a smaller downtown, such as Orlando, FL? There are no subways or commuter trains. No real extensive bus system. This leads to the question, what comes first...the chicken or the egg? Or should I say, raise taxes first or build the infrastructure?

Some politicians (you can probably guess which party) say that it should be left to the private industry to build roads. Okay, I am all for the private markets, but what will be their next suggestion? Exxon , Wal-mart and Kroger should arm their own troops, too? There are certain things that a government must provide for in a society, certain functions the private market place cannot account for, such as police and fire protection, the armed forces...and yes, transportation. If you left transportation to a private company, how would companies allocate that? There is the option of impact fees, which some local governments assess to raise money to go towards new roads around new developments. This may help force corporations to pay their private share (but those same politicians would say this is government taxing the private marketplace, hurting business). So, that would leave you to hope that Best Buy would build a road to your house so you could shop there. Does this make any sense? Not to me either.

The only way the transportation mess (the crumbling bridges, traffic jams, etc) are going to be fixed, is if the government invests in the infrastructure. Additionally, the government cannot tax the hell out of Americans, without an alternative. Of course, the government already spends more than it makes, so what's the solution? Well, its actually simple. The federal government should stop taxing us for the many items that are really only state issues, such as education and stop taxing us on the vast entitlements that people abuse every day. It amazes me, after going to Europe, that America has no real extensive rail network. If we had more railways, we would have options other than driving cars. So, rather than building more roads and bigger highways, maybe we should be investing in railways, which take up a lot less land and has a better effect on the environment.