Overview:  Minnesota does not need new transportation projects in order to be competitive, according to David Levinson of the University of Minnesota. There are some bottlenecks that could be addressed, he says, but the primary problem is that we’ve been spending too much on new capital projects and not enough on operating and maintaining the existing system of federal, state and local highways and roads.

 

User-fee revenues for highways, mainly gas-tax revenues, have been declining in recent years because of fewer trips, more fuel-efficient cars and political resistance at both the federal and state levels to raising the gas tax, he says. Also, a large share of federal Highway Trust Fund revenues have been diverted to pay for transit capital projects, although transit serves only about two percent of all trips nationally.

 

Levinson discusses a broad range of actions he believes will successfully address these transportation issues.

For the complete interview summary see: Levinson interview