What's Wrong With the Transportation Bill

Bizblogger ^ | 03/10/05 | Richie Rich

[Richie Rich]

Today the House of Representatives passed the mammoth $284 billion transportation bill, or the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy For Users. The transportation bill has long been one of the favorite bills of lobbyists and congressmen. As I noted in an earlier post entitled “Pork & Beans: A Look at the Transportation Bill,” profligate spending is just one problem with the bill. Despite the record size of the bill and a 42% increase from the previous bill, Chairman Don Young (R-AK), still claims it’s not enough. Amazingly, he says that $284 billion is inadequate to make inroads at the congestion problem. "We probably need $500 billion to make sure this country keeps moving," he said. (At least with his Bridge to Nowhere project in Alaska, traffic will be flowing from Ketchikan to Gravina Island.)

In a recent essay, Ronald Ott of the Heritage Foundation points out many of the problems in the Transporation Bill, including “billions of dollars of trust fund money diverted to non-transportation purposes, high spending on costly but underutilized programs, and the preservation of a Washington-based command and control system at a time when transportation problems are increasingly local in nature.”

Part of the problem is that there is no clear direction or mandate anymore. As Ott explains,

[Eska]

I live 180 miles down a goat path they call a highway here in alaska. Many places one lane; road collapsed off cliff, blue sky, no guard rail entire length. After a rain, impassable until it drys out,4x4's bury in, like going back to 1920's with model T's. The road is only open from may thru sept, but at least we only have to pay 3 bucks a gallon for gas and not 7 if they barged it in by river.

Some of these people that write articles like this never been out of a city I guess.