Main Content
Highlights
Will road taxes run out?
Economists with the US Government have forecast that America's traditional system of road funding will become unsustainable and suggest that toll roads may be the only way to meet future financial short-falls.
They also believe that tolling should incorporate an element of congestion charging - like the system newly introduced in California where tolls are varied according to the prevailing level of traffic.
The analysis, published by the United States Government Accountability Office, stops short of recommending an America-wide switch to tollways, but says that if the country's increasingly daunting traffic congestion problems are to be solved, tollways present the easiest solution.
The analysts certainly rule out any hope of additional, long term federal funding to put the road network right - largely because they believe baby-boomer retirements will sap funds and in addition, traditional fuel taxes will become an increasingly less reliable method for financing roads.
"The per-gallon fuel tax, the mainstay of transportation finance for 80 years, is declining in purchasing power because fuel tax rates are not increasing, and more fuel-efficient vehicles and alternative-fuelled vehicles undermine the long-term viability of fuel taxes as the basis for financing transportation," says their report.
The report readily admits that tollways are not popular - either with the public or some of their political representatives. But the report suggests there are better ways to make tolls more acceptable - and one way is to use them flexibly to control congestion.
"Although tolling can take different forms and decisions about its use are state specific, in concept, a tolling structure that varies with the level of congestion - congestion pricing - offers increased predicability and, as a result, provides tangible benefits to users," says the report.
"While actual experience with congestion pricing is still fairly limited in the United States, projects in operation illustrate how transportation officials have advanced projects seeking to achieve the potential benefits that may result from congestion pricing. For example, toll pricing on Interstate 15 in San Diego are set dynamically, changing every six minutes, which has succeeded in keeping traffic flowing freely."
The scan also showed:
Better pavements
While considerable research goes into perfecting roads, very little scientific effort is directed at improving pedestrian ways. But not any more. University College London has just opened the world's first test laboratory design specifically to improve pedestrian environments. The so-called Pedestrian Accessibility & Movement Environment Laboratory (PAMELA) will enable researchers to observe and understand how different factors cause problems for pedestrians - such as uneven walking surfaces and visual and noise distractions. According to Professor Nick Tyler who heads the laboratory, PAMELA will have a computer controlled platform that can be altered to mimic the characteristics of different pedestrian environments, a lighting system to mimic day and night conditions, and a sound system to provide ambient noise. (For example, it will provide both traffic noise and the sounds of a train station.) As well as enabling researchers to investigate user-friendliness for everyone from children to the aged, PAMELA will also provide a test environment to pinpoint what can make a pedestrian way confusing.
Walking on rubber
The United States appears to be going through a "quiet revolution" in rubberised pedestrian ways. According to one report in the past five years 60 cities have begun installing rubber sidewalks made from recycled vehicle tyres. The manufacturer, Californian-based, Rubbersidewalks Inc says although they cost about a third more to purchase than the concrete variety, they last four times as long, and require less labour to install. They are also easier to lift so that any nearby tree roots can be trimmed.
Preparing for climate change
The UK's Highway Agency has begun adapting its road network to better cope with climate change. Locally, Britain is expecting rainfall to increase substantially and the agency is responding by installing an improved system of road drainage along motorways and trunk roads. It says the new drains are not only designed to handle more rain, but also minimise the road pollution that can run off into natural watercourses. The new drains are being formed as v-shaped, grass-lined channels. The agency says the grass encourages sedimentation - and so reduces the level of pollutant run-offs.
Fair clamping
A two-tier system for dealing with parking offenders is to be introduced in Britain next year in an effort to make the rules "fairer", according to the country's Transport Secretary, Douglas Alexander. He says there will be a more motorist-friendly appeals process for those who want to challenge their tickets - but repeat offenders who try to avoid penalties will have their names listed on a national data base and any time their vehicles are found offending, the wheels will be clamped.
