Transportation Spend: Waste, Fraud, and Abuse?

Even if you are not a news junkie, there is no escaping all the coverage of waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending; there is no DOGEing it. But what about U.S. spend on transportation infrastructure?

Transportation for America, an advocacy group of leaders concerned about the importance of our transportation network, recently took a shot at answering the infrastructure question with an interesting study. As you might expect, the news is not good, according to Beth Osborne, the study’s author.

Congress and previous administrations funded the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and other federal transportation programs, spending more than $1 trillion. That is one million million dollars. What is the result of all that investment, according to Osborne? U.S. roads are still crumbling, unsafe, and congested. Here are some interesting points from the study:

• The state of U.S. roads and bridges has not significantly improved despite record investment.
• Highly trafficked roads get maintenance but, as truckers will tell you, once you are off the interstate or in the city, many lower-volume road conditions are abysmal.
• Bridge conditions show minor shifts downward, with good condition bridges dropping from 47.8% to 46%.
• Even in places that lost population, such as Detroit, adding more highways still led to increased congestion.
• American roads are the most dangerous in the developed world, with road fatalities higher than in comparable nations.

When it comes to safety, state transportation departments note a few influencing factors such as aging drivers, new entrants with driver licenses and many driving without. Driver education took a knee during the COVID years, and then there is increased driver drug use. Pedestrian deaths are lumped in with the study data, which skews road safety counts.

The conclusions are clear. Tons of spending, combined with a lack of management and accountability, means that federal transportation funding has consistently failed to improve road conditions. Transportation for America calls for Congress to rethink how funds are allocated and to stay accountable, instead of simply increasing spending.

That’s fine, but Congress has heard from groups like Transportation for America and others for decades. Result? “Failure to improve road conditions.” Congress has not been effective in dealing with this increasingly important challenge. Should the Executive branch focus on it? What’s your take?