Title: Six Ideas for Fixing the Nation's Infrastructure Problems
Headings: Six Ideas for Fixing the Nation's Infrastructure Problems
Six Ideas for Fixing the Nation's Infrastructure Problems
Here's how to plan, fund and make a safer, more efficient transportation system.
Revamp the Highway Trust Fund
Get Washington to Take the Issue Seriously
Empower State and Local Governments
Increase Rural Access
Get Cities to Think Big
Make Bridges Smarter
Caroline Cournoyer

Content: Well,” LaHood replied, “we’re not doing anything about it.” That’s a serious problem, according to virtually all transportation experts. The nation’s highways are primarily financed by the Highway Trust Fund, which gets most of its money from a gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon. The tax has remained unchanged since 1993 and isn’t tied to the price of gas or inflation. As a result, it’s lost a third of its purchasing power over the past 18 years. That’s caused both short- and long-term consequences. In the short term, Congress has had to bail out the trust fund to the tune of $35 billion since 2008 -- the fund spends more money than it takes in. In the long term, the situation is even more problematic. As more and more Americans opt for hybrid and electric vehicles -- and as cars in general continue to become more fuel efficient -- the highway system faces a future in which it is perpetually underfunded. It’s a system, Schroer says today, that is “at best archaic.”