John Hennessy III,
P.E.
STATE OF OREGON
GOVERNOR’S TRANSPORTATION VISION PANEL
In order to create the system that will best serve our future needs, one that allows for the efficient movement of people and products in an environmentally responsible way, we must be cognizant of current challenges in today’s transportation system and we must be willing to act.
SECURING AMERICA’S ENERGY FUTURE
ENERGY SECURITY LEADERSHIP COUNCIL
Too often, America’s exposure to the risks of oil dependence has been measured by consumers and
policymakers as a function of the price of oil at a specific point in time or our level of reliance on foreign
suppliers. The result has been long periods of inaction and inattention after each crisis, which simply
leaves the country dangerously exposed for the inevitable next crisis. The risk of such complacence
today is high. Low oil prices have reduced the sense of urgency shared throughout the country as
recently as 2014. Yet just as it has been so many times before, the oil market is in the midst of a cycle.
We must be better prepared when the tide once again turns.
THE CENTURY FOUNDATION
The next president will need to create a true and comprehensive vision of America’s transportation infrastructure, a program to pursue that vision, and honest mechanisms to fund it. This report addresses the new principles that should serve as a foundation for a future transportation program that will enable America to meet its potential.
MINETA TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE
The California High-Speed Rail (HSR) project has matured to the point that initial design of segments in the Central Valley was started in 2014, beginning the long process of completing the California HSR program. One significant concern that many communities involved in, or affected by, the California HSR project have is how to connect the new HSR passenger services to local urban transport, such as bus and light rail. The route and stations for the first segment of the HSR system are well known, but many questions remain about how HSR will be integrated into the existing (and future) California transportation system.
AMERICAN ACTION FORUM
AAF finds that the U.S. will be short roughly one million U.S. citizen STEM workers by 2024. However, this shortage is not consistent across all STEM occupations…AAF projects a surplus of almost 400,000 U.S. citizen STEM workers in occupations related to computer, mathematics, and life, physical, and social science.
21ST CENTURY SCHOOL FUND
NATIONAL COUNCIL ON SCHOOL FACILITIES
THE CENTER FOR GREEN SCHOOLS
School facilities represent the second largest sector of public infrastructure spending, after highways, and yet we have no comprehensive national data source on K–12 public school infrastructure. Even at the state level, school facilities information is often scant. The dearth of official data and standards for our nation’s public school infrastructure has left communities and states working largely on their own to plan for and provide high-quality facilities…These realities inspired our three organizations to assemble the best available state-by-state data and propose a standards-based framework by which we can benchmark the nation’s investment.
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
The United States should be spending more to improve and expand its transportation infrastructure, but instead barely spends enough to maintain the existing network. According to surveys, the quality of U.S. roads and transit is mediocre compared with other peer countries in the Group of Seven (G7). Although road and bridge conditions have actually been improving over time, capacity has not expanded as fast as population growth or miles driven. Congestion is now twice as bad as it was in the early 1980s.
AMERICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION
This study, which focused on the Silicon Beach Innovation District in Los Angeles County, CA; the Historic Technology District in northwest Austin, TX; and Research Triangle Park, one of the oldest research parks in the United States, located between Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh, NC, finds that public transportation could be the determining factor in the success of innovation districts in the United States.
Dennis Slater is President and Secretary of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). He oversees operation of all Association programs, which focus on core service areas of market information and equipment statistics, public policy representation, product safety and technical support, and trade shows.
“…Equipment manufacturers build the machines that make America. They build the machines that harvest crops and feed America and feed the world. Originally this was something that we just explained to our members, and we decided it’s not good enough. You have to also ask your members, you have to explain to their employees so they get involved in this and understand that their jobs depend on policies that support their jobs…This year, especially, we’ve gone out there now to the candidates that are running to say “what’s your manufacturing platform? What are your solutions for infrastructure?”’
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INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY RESEARCH
While headlines have reported declining oil, gas, and coal prices, those declines do not deter from the fact that U.S. energy resources are valuable to our domestic economic growth. The most recent government estimate of those benefits was a 2012 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study, produced at the request of the House Budget Committee, which analyzed federal lease revenues that could be expected to arise from a proposal to open federal lands and waters to oil, gas, and coal extraction.
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