Report: How to Fix Surface Transportation in Massachusetts

Washington, D.C., June 12, 2012 – Massachusetts, like other states, faces problems in funding its transportation infrastructure needs. A new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute recommends reforms that will enable the state to meet its transportation infrastructure needs in an era where Washington politics are calling into question the federal role, and without politically difficult tax increases.

Maintaining the “user-pays/user-benefits” funding principle should be of the utmost importance to transportation policy makers seeking to address the nation’s growing transportation challenges, says Marc Scribner, author of Fixing Surface Transportation in Massachusetts: A Path Forward under a Devolved Federal Funding Scenario.

The answer lies in adopting new innovative facilities management practices, new revenue collection technologies, and reforming or eliminating outdated and bloated government institutions.

Some suggestions contained include transitioning away from fuel taxes, establishing facility concession agreements with private partners, expanding electronic tolling, adopting VMT fees, adopting variable tolling, and converting HOV lanes to HOT lanes.

But to get there, states like Massachusetts need to read the writing on the wall turn away from existing failed policies, Scribner urges.

> Read the CEI OnPoint, Fixing Surface Transportation in Massachusetts: A Path Forward under a Devolved Federal Funding Scenario