#State spending on masstransit drivers#

economy to effectively compete and grow decades hence, many experts say.įalling construction costs have helped to put transportation infrastructure projects in reach for the United States. The investments made-or not made-today will shape not only next year’s commute, but the ability of the U.S. Much of this funding may come from fuel taxes, which are substantially higher in OECD nations outside of North America. McKinsey & Company estimates that the world will require $57 trillion in new infrastructure (including power, water, telecom, etc.) by 2030 global infrastructure spending was $4 trillion in 2012, but is expected to reach $9 trillion annually in 2025 . The entire world faces a large infrastructure challenge. For private investors in Australia, it’s estimated that infrastructure investments in the mid-1990s yielded 7 to 8 percent annually, with favorable risk exposure. The World Economic Forum calculated a long-term gain of five to twenty-five cents on annual GDP for every dollar spent on public infrastructure. Standard and Poor’s calculated that a $1.3 billion project will create an immediate real economic gain of $2 billion, with an unknown positive long-term effect. Investing for TomorrowĮconomists of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco analyzed highway spending projects and localized economic growth and concluded that spikes in spending led to economic growth both immediately and in the medium term (six to eight years), but did not appear to accelerate growth beyond ten years. Aside from the Recovery Act and a two-year reauthorization plan passed in 2012, Congress has only passed short-term reauthorizations to keep the Highway Trust Fund afloat. But the former was a temporary measure and the latter is unlikely to gain traction in Congress. The Obama administration has attempted to prioritize transportation infrastructure by making it the second largest component of the 2009 Recovery Act, and proposing the GROW AMERICA Act to provide four years of comprehensive funding to modernize highways, railways, and mass transit. While experts have been warning about crumbling infrastructure for more than a decade, the federal government has not addressed underinvestment.

#State spending on masstransit drivers#

bridges are structurally deficient-while new projects are needed to address issues such as road congestion, which costs American drivers $101 billion annually in wasted time and fuel, and airport delays that are a $22 billion drag on the economy. Current infrastructure requires more investment-for instance, one in nine U.S.

infrastructure in all five report cards issued from 1998 to 2013. The decline can be attributed to a general trend of under-investment in infrastructure the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has only awarded overall grades of D or D+ to U.S. The Pittsburgh Bridge Collapse and the Importance of Infrastructure Investment