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“The nation can no longer afford to support poorly targeted [transportation] investments when the needs are so great and public resources are so constrained,” meaning that the Obama administration and Congress must consider a new approach to transportation funding, according to a report released by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC).

Authors Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Martin Wachs, members of BPC’s National Transportation Policy Project, emphasized the primary importance of transportation policy to economic policy. “The need for investment is clear: our roads are deteriorating and our transportation systems are not equipped to handle increasing capacity,” Holtz-Eakin said. “Still, we cannot devote additional dollars, much less borrowed dollars, to transportation programs that provide an uncertain number of jobs and no lasting economic benefit.”

The report, Strengthening Connections Between Transportation Investments and Economic Growth, outlines proposals for three specific policy changes:

* Allocate no new funds to existing transportation programs if they provide questionable job creation, unclear long-term benefits, or if the programs are solely an effort to increase short-term employment;

* Direct investments to programs that both are “shovel-ready” and provide long-term benefits, easing unemployment while also building the nation’s economic future; and

* Do not constrain federal transportation investments by the silos and restrictions that dominate the federal government’s existing surface transportation program. “Instead of focusing on how the money is spent—that is, on whether funds go to operations versus capital or to highway versus transit—the focus must shift to the outcomes being achieved with a particular expenditure,” the report stated.

The full text of the report is available here.

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