The Marine Transportation System and the Federal Role Measuring Performance, Targeting Improvement -- Special Report 279 (2004) / Chapter Skim
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6 Information and Analysis for Decisions
6 Information and Analysis for Decisions
Pages 137-155
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From page 137... ...
To develop such a framework, the federal sponsors of this study asked the committee to · Review how federal agency investments in the MTS are now made, including the degree of interagency coordination of investment deci sions and the policy issues associated with patterns of investment; · Review and interpret projections for future maritime demand; 137
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From page 138... ...
Such an approach would make more efficient use of federal resources and ensure that federal decisions are compatible with furthering national interests and capable of meeting the growing demands placed on the MTS. In par ticular, the results indicate the following: · Anticipated growth in production and trade over the next several decades will cause the MTS to become even more heavily used and critical to the functioning of the national economy.
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From page 139... ...
As pressures for such integration intensify, they will almost certainly be accompanied by changes in federal, state, local, and private-sector responsibilities, investments, and services. · Federal involvement in the MTS stems from a commitment to ensur ing marine safety, protecting the marine environment, facilitating commerce, and providing for national security.
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From page 140... ...
Users of these transportation systems have come to accept broad based user charges and national trust funds as means of financing the federal transportation programs. · By themselves, good system performance data and analyses cannot ensure more consistent and effective public choices.
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From page 141... ...
Similarly, while federal attention may be directed at regulat ing vessel design as a way to ensure marine safety, vessel operators may view improved hydrographic data and the training and retention of qual ified crew as having comparable importance. Recognition of these different perspectives is important in ensuring that federal decisions are consistent and aimed at furthering priorities.
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From page 142... ...
Accordingly, when federal policy makers seek to enhance MTS performance with regard to these national interests, they are inclined to focus first on highly visible system components that are most directly within the federal domain. Opportunities to advance national interests from outside this traditional domain may be neglected.
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From page 143... ...
For example, the perspectives of MTS users such as the passenger, dry bulk, liquid bulk, and container segments (Figure 6-2) and federal agency roles (Figure 6-3)
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From page 144... ...
Among the questions are the following: · What are the safety and environmental challenges associated with liq uid bulk transportation, where are the challenges the greatest, and how are the federal agencies, individually and collectively, perform ing in meeting these challenges? · Which federal agencies have responsibility for ensuring that the MTS meets the needs of national security, and for which system components 144
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From page 145... ...
· Where are the constraints on MTS capacity to accommodate com merce, and what is the federal role in addressing them? How does this 145
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From page 146... ...
Some, in the committee's opinion, deserve early attention because they have the poten tial to be exacerbated by escalating transportation demand. They include the following: · The capability of highways and other intermodal facilities at major ports to handle increasing container traffic.
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From page 147... ...
· Absence of systematic and comprehensive efforts to strengthen marine safety, security, and environmental protection. The frag mented roles of the federal agencies in promoting marine safety, secu rity, and environmental protection have led to many prevention, mitigation, and response activities, each tending to focus on specific subsets of problems.
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From page 148... ...
in March 2003 has altered federal agency linkages and responsi bilities. This transfer -- along with that of the Transportation Security Administration, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, and other federal agencies -- has consolidated and made more prominent the federal role in ensuring the security of the MTS.
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From page 149... ...
Acting in this capacity, DOT can be expected to work closely with the responsible federal agencies across cabinet departments in developing measures of system performance with respect to all MTS components and for all dimensions of performance. It should be charged with assessing federal resource requirements to strengthen performance, identifying critical gaps and shortcomings in performance that may benefit from increased federal attention, and evaluating and recommending policy options to meet performance goals.
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From page 150... ...
, and environmental and safety performance. Furthermore, the reports con tain projections of future demand and the results of economic and engi neering analyses of probable impacts of alternative investment levels on various dimensions of performance.
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From page 151... ...
Whether efforts to measure, monitor, and assess ways to improve MTS performance will improve coordination across federal agencies and pro grams remains to be seen. In any event, such efforts will provide policy makers with a better understanding of how federal programs, taken together, can help advance national interests.
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From page 152... ...
Reinvest All User and Trust Fund Revenues in the MTS Another important lesson learned from the other federal transportation programs is that revenues generated from system users must be promptly reinvested back into the system. Efforts by the federal government to monitor system performance and identify critical needs will help assure users that federal investment decisions are based on a desire to improve overall system performance.
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From page 153... ...
The commitment should be accompanied by the kinds of statutory and political devices used in the federal aviation and surface transportation pro grams to make it binding. Apply to the MTS What Works in Other Federal Transportation Programs As mentioned earlier, a number of concerns were raised repeatedly dur ing the committee's interviews with MTS users and reviews of reports: · Insufficient capacity of highways and other intermodal facilities con necting to the major ports that handle container traffic; · Delays in the dredging of harbor channels to accommodate larger ves sels and in the modernization of locks and other inland waterway infra structure; and · Absence of systematic and comprehensive efforts to strengthen marine safety, security, and environmental protection.
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From page 154... ...
The following recommendations are offered in this spirit: The Secretary of Transportation should seek from Congress a more balanced set of tools to make national transportation investment and policy decisions that recognize the increasing integration of the transportation modes and the effects that federal decisions concerning one mode have on other modes. As a first step, DOT should examine and advise Congress on ways to expand the scope and flexibility of existing federal transportation investment and finance programs so that they can be used more effectively for the development of multimodal and intermodal transportation facilities.
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From page 155... ...
2002. Marine Transportation: Federal Financing and a Framework for Infrastructure Investments.
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