600-750 words and a summary

Transportation Infrastructure

Since the establishment of the US infrastructure, the nation has developed amazing modernized systems. In order to provide Americans with a good quality of life, the US infrastructure was designed to do just that. Transportation has always been a major factor in US economic growth. It is still one of the most vital drivers of commerce and trade. Any product consumed by an American, will most likely be driven through one of the various interstate highways and roads.

As Mark Gerencser describes it, transportation is a “lifeline” to US infrastructure. (Gerencser P. 35)

The US has been able to maintain the livelihood of our transportation infrastructure. However, more so than not, urban and centralized highways are coming to the end of their lifecycle.

Roads across the US continue to deteriorate. Increase in population across the US along with urbanization of more central cities has taken a toll on the transportation infrastructure. Congestion is one of the leading causes of the stress the roads see as more and more drivers take to the roads. Heavy truck use in main roads contribute to this never ending maintenance cycle.

More than a quarter of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient, and by every measure the quality of highways and roads continues to decline. (Gerencser 35)

US transportation systems are maintained by a patch on, quick fix, unsustainable groundwork.

The government has not developed a new alternative to upgrade or reinvent the transportation system.

Knowing that our economy depends on transportation, how is it that we have just maintained the roads? Why hasn’t there been any new developments, modes of transportation?

Why does the US keep “fixing” existing roads and constructing new ones in the same way?

Reinventing transportation infrastructure is imperative to strengthen the lifeline or backbone of the US economy.

In California, the highways and roads are crippling and deteriorating at a rapid rate. It seems as though we fix one pothole and 3 new potholes pop down. California's take on maintaining transportation infrastructure is to “fix-it-first”; to repair and recondition highways and roads.

Explain why the problem has not been addressed

Traffic problems in the U.S have always been of great concern. Traffic congestion and potholes on the roads have many effects on the efficient transportation of traffic. Instead of building an effective transportation system, the government keeps building and repairing roads, but the construction of road facilities does not really solve the problem.  According to Couture, Duranton and Turner(2018), “ Los Angeles illustrates the principle: The city has been expanding its highway network for years in response to traffic congestion, with little impact on congestion”. Not only does it cost a lot of money to keep repairing and building roads, but the growth of roads has increased the use of more vehicles. The evidence for the basic law of road congestion from Duranton and Turner (2011), “The increase in interstate vehicle miles traveled in a city is proportional to the increase in interstate highways. Thus, in a span of less than five years, every 1% increase in lane miles leads to a 1% increase in interstate traffic”. The government's  “fix-it-first” strategy does not address the root cause of the problem. The more roads are built, the more problems are exposed. As the road network expands, people are driving more and more. The rest reflects an increase in truck traffic, a small part reflects the movement of people to cities as new highways are built, and the rest reflects a shift in traffic away from other roads and toward an expanded network of highways. Thus, expansion of the road network is expected to require increased capacity (and unused capacity) rather than reduced congestion.

Federal funds have not been effectively used for transportation construction. Although the government spends a lot of money every year to repair the traffic, the money does not make a real difference. Roads are constantly being built and damaged. Innovative technologies are not widely used。

  The same road traffic system design and mode cannot meet the increasing demand. The Transportation system in the United States has been using almost the same methods and designs to build roads for 70 years. However, this approach has not been able to meet the needs of urbanization and increased car traffic. These data show that road design is one of the major factors contributing to congestion and poor road conditions. “Approximately 15,000 highway fatalities result annually from crashes in which substandard roadway conditions, obsolete designs, or roadside hazards are a factor…More than 17,710 kilometers (11,000 miles) of NHS pavements are currently in poor condition.( Churilla, 2004)” At present, there are many effective ways to realize safer and longer expressways, extend the effective life of expressways and reduce the congestion caused by construction. However, these innovations and advanced technologies can only be practiced in specific projects and are difficult to implement universally.

   In addition, repairing road traffic also requires the effective use of a lot of money……....