Moving the Public from "No" to "Know" on Transportation Funding

As long as there have been public roadways, it's been necessary to educate citizens about the need for funding road construction and upkeep.

After all, no matter what the mechanism for obtaining infrastructure funding, ultimately it comes from the public.

Thus over the years, transportation agencies have created public education initiatives to show the cost of infrastructure, how infrastructure funding is being spent and what happens when funding isn't available.

However,  the urgency of these initiatives has heightened over the last few years. 

A big source of transportation funding for all of the states, the Federal Highway Trust Fund, is in danger of becoming insolvent because its main source, the federal gas tax, hasn't increased in 21 years. The reluctance by Congress to raise this tax reflects a general public bias against it. Tolling and other alternative forms of infrastructure funding face similar resistence.  Yet, public complaints about crumbling infrastructure seem to have reached an all time high.

In addition, traditional ways of reaching the public are giving way to new tools and methods that transportation agencies must quickly master  in order to make the best use of them.

With this in mind, IBTTA held a Twitter chat this week (the first of a planned monthly series of #TranspoChat chats on transportation infrastructure related topics) about how best to educate the public about the need for infrastructure funding.  IBTTA Exectuive Director and CEO Patrick Jones moderated the chat and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Communications Director Lloyd Brown was his guest.

You can check out the summary here.

photo credit: Clint Gardner via photopin cc