The Era of big Infrastructure is Over | Transportist

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

In his 1996 State of the Union Address, then President Clinton said twice “The era of big Government is over.” Clearly it was not. While government spending ebbs and flows, big government continues to be a feature of American society.

If I were President I would claim the “Era of big (civil) Infrastructure is over” in the US. Not that we don’t have big infrastructure, we do, and it isn’t going anywhere soon. The size of the paved area in the US is on the order of the State of Virginia. That’s pretty big, and just looks at one measure of one infrastructure (admittedly a large one).

Once upon a time we did deploy big infrastructure. The railroads in the 19th century, and the interstate in the 20th were BIG. Turnpikes and canals were other large technical systems of the 19th century, as were the US Highway system, airports, container ports, and the like in the 20th. But they have been deployed, and many of them area already shrinking.

Instead, because the existing infrastructure systems are mature (built out), they need little expanding (and likely some contracting).

Link: 

The Era of big Infrastructure is Over | Transportist

MoBikeFed comment: This is a topic we have been discussing with political leaders and transportation agency decision-makers for some time now.

The 20th Century was the time for building out America's road and highway network. In about 100 years we have gone from the invention of the automobile to one car per household to (just after the year 2000) more than one car per licensed driver.

Road and highway construction went hand-in-hand with this massive growth in automobiles and drivers.

However, that dramatic super-growth in vehicle miles driven has now rather dramatically come to a stop.

We may see grown in vehicle miles driven from here on out, but it will be more proportional to population growth--not, as was the case for the entire 20th Century--a rather hefty multiple of population growth.

If building a national and statewide road and highway system was the challenge of the 20th Century, what is the challenge of the 21st?

1. Maintain the system we have. It is a monumental--and expensive--task just to perform the basic and continual maintenance our road, bridge, and highway system needs on an annual basis.

2. Filling in the gaps. We were in such a hurry in the 20th Century, and took so many shortcuts, that we left a few essentials out of our transportation system. Those essentials can be summed up in one word: People.

We need the sidewalks, the crosswalks, the bikeways. We need public transit.

We need a transportation system that meets the needs of all Americans and all Missourians, from age 4 to 94, whatever their level of ability or disability, and whether they choose to walk, bicycle, drive, or take transit.