Going back to the great article in The Economist I missed the diagnosis of another problem. The transportation infrastructure in the United States is decaying. Interestingly enough, this is a problem that seems to primarly plague public transportation infrastructure. The railroads are actually in good shape; maintaining high-quality right-of-way conditions on their own dime (ignoring the fact that certain projects receive generous grants). Toll roads also seem to do a good job of managing their own maintenance and operations.
You could argue, quite rightly, that this isn’t a problem in and of itself but rather a symptom of our funding structure and thr politic winds. However, it’s also a problem worthy of its own solutions so for now we’ll add it to our list.
To recap the problems:
- Disparate Funding Structures
- True Costs are Hidden
- Politics Trumps Solutions
- Dependence on Foreign Oil
- Decaying Infrastructure
I promise we are going to expound on these problems in the future. In addition we are going to start tossing around solutions.