The United States desperately needs a 21st-century national infrastructure plan to emerge from its deep recession and ensure future prosperity, according to Infrastructure 2009: Pivot Point, a new publication released today by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young.
Infrastructure 2009 calls for overhauling federal infrastructure policy and integrating land use and infrastructure planning at all levels of government. Such a plan, the report says, could result in greater leveraging of public investments; an improved mobility network that adequately supports desired economic growth; and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions through reduced auto dependency. The publication discusses the evolving infrastructure market, including private systems, and the combinations of public-private systems for funding, construction, operations, maintenance, and management.
The report acknowledges that the $132 billion allotted to states for various ad hoc infrastructure projects in the recently-enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) should help boost the U.S. economy by creating jobs, but says the legislation falls far short of developing a necessary national strategy aimed at enabling future economic growth.
Infrastructure 2009 details a four-pronged approach to changing infrastructure policy that addresses how the nation plans, funds and implements infrastructure programs:
- Create a national strategy – A comprehensive strategy is needed that accounts for population growth, rapid urbanization and declining mobility throughout urban areas. New transport networks must interconnect more efficiently to move people and goods through increasingly congested global pathway cities. Innovative new transit schemes, connected to airports and train stations, must help reduce car dependency, prevent bottlenecks in commercial centers and decrease pollution.
- Plan holistically – Goals to reduce congestion, cut carbon footprints, decrease foreign oil dependency and ensure adequate water supplies require integration of transportation, energy and environmental programs with land use planning and housing policy. Where people choose to live and work and how they travel will often be determined by the cost and convenience of various transport options.
- Consolidate government management – Federal, state and local governments must restructure agencies responsible for transportation, housing, water and energy to manage and execute a coordinated infrastructure policy. States should break down silos between different transportation agencies and local land use authorities to formulate long-range regional plans that tie into a national infrastructure agenda.
- Change funding approaches – More of the funding burdens for new infrastructure networks and repairs must shift to users from taxpayers, since government coffers alone will never be sufficient to cover costs. Among the new funding sources: higher gas taxes, greater use of highway tolls, charges for vehicle miles traveled. The report also supports establishment of a national infrastructure bank – drawing on the success of the European Investment Bank -- to help finance national networks and attract more private capital.
Read the full report or purchase the book from ULI's bookstore
