The Federal Role in Highway Research and Technology Special Report 261 (2001) / Chapter Skim
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2 The U.S. Highway System and the Innovation Challenge
2 The U.S. Highway System and the Innovation Challenge
Pages 31-46
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From page 31... ...
The third section reviews major impediments to more widespread highway industry innovation. This is followed by a discussion of several major highway system issues that can be addressed by research aimed at providing innovation and new technologies to meet the nation's safety, mobility, and economic goals.
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Private-sector spending for highway transportation in the United States was $688 billion in 1997, 82.5 percent of all expenditures for passenger transportation. In 1996, Americans spent more than $225 billion on new automobiles and trucks.1 More than $402 billion was spent in 1997 for truck freight transportation in the United States, about 79 percent of the nation's freight transportation expenditures.
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From page 33... ...
The private sector of the highway industry, consisting of tens of thousands of private firms providing materials and services, is decentralized and geographically diverse.3 The roles and responsibilities of the public and private components of the highway industry are described in the following subsections. Highway Agencies The federalstatelocal intergovernmental highway partnership was established early in the 20th century and has served the system and the nation well.
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From page 34... ...
It also created the Highway Trust Fund, which is based on receipts from federal user taxes on motor fuels, tires and tubes, new buses, and trucks and trailers, as well as a use tax on heavy trucks. A key provision of the act was that the federal government -- through the trust fund -- provided 90 percent of the highway construction costs for the new Interstate highway system.4 4The federal government plays a significant role in financing the highway system.
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, then the Bureau of Public Roads, became and continues to be the federal agency responsible for the federalaid highway program and for the development of regulations, policies, and guidelines for achieving national highway goals through the agency's programs. In 1999 FHWA dispersed more than $26 billion for highways, primarily from the Highway Trust Fund.
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From page 36... ...
In the past, most were small and worked in a single state, but consolidation is changing this situation in many specialty areas.6 Barriers to Highway System Innovation Innovation in the highway sector usually involves improving performance, costeffectiveness, quality, or safety or reducing environmental consequences. However, certain characteristics of the public sector, and the highway industry in particular, act as barriers to change and innovation (TRB 1999)
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From page 37... ...
Although innovation can help achieve performance improvements or cost savings, it usually involves certain higher initial costs and uncertain future benefits, a difficult combination in light of the atmosphere of intense public scrutiny and accountability faced by public decision makers. · Highway projects being organized in a manner that does not promote innovation -- Several factors associated with the way highway construction and maintenance activities are organized and undertaken constrain innovation.
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Table 2-2 characterizes the highway transportation environment highway agencies face as they address these problems. Although many of these challenges represent highway user preferences,9 others stem from changes brought about by legislation in 1991 and 1998 that reauthorized federal highway program expenditures (see Box 2-1 for more detail)
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From page 39... ...
Congestion also impedes just-in-time delivery -- a key to successful competition in global markets. An isolated vehicle breakdown or crash that increases travel time for other highway users can mean that components do not arrive in time to be installed on schedule or that businesses need more inventory to accommodate unreliable delivery schedules.
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, reflecting many changes already under way and others still needed in the nation's transportation system. ISTEA changed the way highway agencies and highway users plan and manage the surface transportation sys tem and broadened the scope of the highway R&T program.
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.12 Increasingly, however, repair and rehabilitation are needed on urban Interstate highways and other urban freeways and expressways that pass through heavily traveled corridors in built-up areas, as well as on key sections of rural Interstates with high traffic volumes and inadequate alternative routes. Such projects are likely to be complex and costly for highway agencies, local communities, highway users, and others because of traffic and business disruptions and the limitations placed by existing rights-of-way and nearby community and economic development on potential 12Data are available for all roads except rural minor collectors, rural local roads, and urban streets.
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Moreover, innovative methods developed for major corridor rehabilitation and reconstruction projects can offer less intrusive and disruptive ways of conducting projects aimed at implementing safer highway designs and mitigating environmental and community impacts. Concerns About Highway Safety In 2000 there were an estimated 11 million vehicle crashes, more than 3 million injuries, and more than 42,000 deaths associated with highway transportation.
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These issues include individual travel behavior and how travel decisions are made, how transportation and land use interact to affect travel demand, and how transportation system changes affect individual travel behavior. 14Petroleum supplies about 97 percent of transportation energy, and motor vehicles consume the largest single portion of this fuel.
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From page 44... ...
These challenges include badly needed road repairs; injuries, fatalities, and damage due to highway crashes; delays due to crashes, congestion, and road repairs; risks related to unsafe drivers and road conditions; and the many impacts of the highway system on individuals, communities, businesses, and the environment. Highway agencies must address these challenges under heavy and escalating traffic conditions in communities that want a minimum of disruption to current activities, and must do so while under close scrutiny by environmental and neighborhood groups.
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References Abbreviations BTS Bureau of Transportation Statistics COTA Congressional Office of Technology Assessment FHWA Federal Highway Administration NSC National Safety Council STPP Surface Transportation Policy Project TRB Transportation Research Board TTI Texas Transportation Institute Buechner, W
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1994. Special Report 244: Highway Research: Current Programs and Future Directions.
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