John Hennessy III,
P.E.
Current federal and state transportation policies in the United States often set us back in the fight against global warming. To move toward a carbon-free transportation system, America must adopt a bold new vision for transportation policy – with 50 common-sense policy reforms helping to chart a new way forward.
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“I think it’s the first time in recent history that we’ve seen two presidential candidates talk about the infrastructure needs and willingness to address the infrastructure funding deficit…So we really feel like the public is starting to get more engaged, starting to understand that we do have infrastructure needs around the country and are willing to come to the table to have serious discussions to figure out how to solve these problems.”
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The wind industry has come a long way, but still more has to be done. World wind power generation capacity reached 435 gigawatts at the end of 2015, which is only 7% of total global power generation capacity. To push this figure higher, governments should implement a range of measures and support schemes like feed in tariffs, renewable portfolio standards in combination with auctions, and production tax credits. As shares of wind continue to increase, countries must also take steps to create power systems that can integrate large amounts of variable wind energy, exploring smart grids, storage technologies and other grid management mechanisms.
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Functional or not, the dams that dot the country cannot simply be ignored or forgotten. Indeed, these dams pose a significant safety problem: ASCE classifies nearly 4,000 dams as “deficient.” Furthermore, these structures continue to block an estimated 600,000 miles of rivers in the United States. A new analysis by the Center for American Progress for this report demonstrates that dams and reservoirs have modified the flow of 71 percent of Western rivers by length and that Western rivers are 66 percent more fragmented than they would be in their natural state.
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Investing in sustainable infrastructure is key to tackling the three central challenges facing the global community: reigniting growth, delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals, and reducing climate risk in line with the Paris Agreement…The Global Commission has identified a number of priority actions to rapidly shift investments toward sustainable infrastructure. A number of their previous recommendations are also relevant to this agenda.
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…I think that the public and government officials feel as though infrastructure isn’t as critical as it used to be back 20, 25 years ago…They’ll put up with defects in the pavement, they’ll put up with bridge deterioration, where before, and in other countries, transportation is expected to be in very good condition…And here I think we have a new normal. The expectation has really decreased, and there’s a new normal that the expectations are lower.
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Uber and Lyft left Austin in May 2016 after voters decided to implement stricter operational guidelines for transportation networking companies (TNCs). Soon a flood of new TNCs including RideAustin, Fare, Fasten, GetMe and even a Facebook group called Arcade City with 40,000+ members launched. Yellow Cab soon launched an app and already existing, LUXE, an app that sends someone to valet your car from anywhere downtown, gained popularity.
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Indexing fuel taxes to inflation in addition to imposing a states’ sales tax increases revenue significantly but suffers from a continuous decline in the long-run due to increased fuel efficiency. Our results indicate that although a mileage fee is politically and technologically difficult to achieve, it avoids a declining tax revenue in the long-run.
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AMERICAN COUNCIL OF ENGINEERING COMPANIES (ACEC) By Alan Joch At a time of prolonged economic uncertainty, the stakes in this year’s election couldn’t be higher. Here’s a guide to help engineers weigh the industry impact of each candidate’s economic proposals As we near the 2016 presidential election, many executives remain concerned about the future strength […]
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While livability has received increasing attention in planning and policy circles recently, agreement as to how to define, measure, and create it has been elusive. This is especially true in terms of the livability benefits of transit investments. While livability definitions tend to boil livability down to serving diverse people with diverse opportunities (RITA Office of Research, Development, and Technology 2011), most have not been specific enough to measure it consistently and implement it effectively. Furthermore, getting specific about livability—particularly when focusing on the livability benefits of transit-supportive investments—may cause those who do not care for transit to dismiss it.
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