Conditions and Performance Chapter Listing

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Introduction

Productivity

It is the conventional wisdom, at least among highway advocates, that improvements in the highway systems positively affect the productivity and economy of the nation. A healthy transportation system is important to the manufacturing and service industries of the nation, as well as to personal users. It is not trivial to measure the effects of the highway systems, or improvements to the system, on the economy. It is not trivial to determine the effect of highway improvements on the economy of the nation. Do currently available tools, such as HERS, adequately consider the costs of industrial users of highways? HERS does consider user costs in its decision process, but is it skewed toward the private automobile user? While the value of time for trucks is calculated differently from passenger cars, is that sufficient to adequately address the full costs and benefits to the industrial user? How can recent or future research improve the analysis to better address the effects on industry and the economy?

A number of highway routes in this country are considered trade corridors, because of their importance to international trade. Many of them connect to international borders or to major ports. If we as a nation wish to give prominence to international trade, we need to know whether these corridors are adequate to accommodate this trade. Do we know the conditions of highways that accommodate border trade flows? What is the strength of the pavement on these facilities? What is the capacity of these facilities, and are they adequate to accommodate the expected loads travel? Are we providing adequate service at our international border crossings to facilitate trade? Should we evaluate these corridors separately from the rest of the highway system to determine the condition of these facilities relative to the condition of similar facilities nationwide?