The transportation infrastructure community may some day look back on this week as the moment when the tolling industry began its great push forward.

This morning, during its quarterly board meeting in Miami, Florida, IBTTA is officially launching Moving America Forward, an awareness campaign to highlight the fundamental role of tolling in helping to solve the transportation infrastructure crisis.

If you’ve attended any of our recent conferences or followed our publications, you know this campaign has been in development for several months. Now, with a new year dawning, we’re rolling into high gear (with speed and sheer volume that can only be accommodated by all-electronic toll lanes).

The groundwork is in place. We’re ready to be tough and resilient. And we’re determined to deliver on our part of the solution to what Rep. Bill Shuster, incoming Chairman of the U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, refers to as transportation’s “own version of a fiscal cliff”.

Through 2013 and beyond, Moving America Forward will set out a strong and consistent message, helping media, policy-makers, and the driving public understand the role of user financing in supporting safe, reliable highway infrastructure. Robert Poole, co-founder of the Reason Foundation, had this to say when we launched the campaign:

“It’s about time policy-makers at all levels of government took a serious look at tolling as an effective alternative to traditional funding options. And with weak public and political support for raising any tax in this struggling economy, tolling continues to stand out as the way to go.”

While we’re in Miami, we’re learning that resilience is not just financial. On Thursday afternoon, IBTTA is convening a group of 20 thought leaders from a variety of disciplines for A Forum on Super Storm Sandy:  Resilience and Adaptation.”  In his blog post this week, IBTTA Executive Director and CEO Pat Jones stressed the value of sharing best practices in emergency preparedness and management and helping policy-makers make the most informed decisions about transportation safety and stability.

“We can be assured that severe weather will continue to be a major factor in both the short- and long-term stability of our transportation infrastructure,” Jones wrote, so “the severe weather panel is the beginning of an ongoing conversation.”

Everyone in this industry knows that tolling delivers a safer, more reliable drive for many millions of customers each year. With the launch of Moving America Forward, IBTTA has assembled the financial and staff resources to translate that knowledge into action. With the transportation funding crisis receiving significant attention, and severe events like Hurricane Sandy putting a different kind of spotlight on highway infrastructure, this is our moment to put forward the arguments and win the decisions that will benefit our members, our customers, and the public at large.

In the months ahead, you can expect IBTTA to adopt a much more visible, vibrant posture. You’ll see us in the media. You’ll be able to follow our activities on social media, and on this blog. And you can expect us to call on you for advice and support. Important victories are rarely won easily, but with all the right elements in place, 2013 really is shaping up as the year of moving forward.

Rob Horr is President of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association and Executive Director of the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority in Alexandria Bay, NY.

If there is one thing the United States learned from Super Storm Sandy—or from the dozens of natural disasters that came before it, from the Gulf of Mexico to New England—it’s that we can never be too prepared.

Unfortunately, we can be assured that severe weather will continue to be a major factor in both the short- and long-term stability of our transportation infrastructure. The havoc these super storms wreak on our highways, roads, bridges, and tunnels translates not only into skyrocketing repair costs in the aftermath, but a risk to public safety and the reliable supply of goods and supplies during and after the event.

With more than 5,000 miles of facilities in 35 states and territories, U.S. tolling authorities recorded five billion trips last year. Those numbers underscore how important it is for our industry to stay ahead of the curve and make emergency preparedness a constant priority.

That’s why IBTTA is hosting an important panel on severe weather this week, during its board of directors meeting in Miami, FL. Entitled A Forum on Super Storm Sandy: Adaptation and Resilience, this landmark event will bring together 15 to 20 thought leaders from multiple transportation disciplines to discuss how to plan, construct, operate, and maintain toll facilities before, during, and after a natural disaster. A highlight of the day will be the lessons learned by transportation operators that were in the path of Hurricane Sandy.

Reliable mobility is a top priority in any crisis, and toll authorities already have extensive experience coping with severe weather disasters: less than 24 hours after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise had opened a road that became South Florida’s lifeline in the days after the storm. During Sandy, social media emerged as an essential tool for delivering news updates and responding to commuters’ problems and concerns. From Twitter to Facebook to mobile apps, more and more toll agencies are using new communication technologies to help drivers anticipate weather delays, accidents, and other problems along the road.

IBTTA’s severe weather panel is the beginning of an ongoing conversation. It’s an initial platform to carefully capture the lessons learned from highly skilled, articulate transportation professionals, industry leaders, and allies. It’s a necessary discussion that puts public safety first, in order to keep goods and people moving forward. And we want to make this forum a catalyst for public policy discussions that will help governments make the most informed decisions about our transportation safety and stability.

As negotiations in Washington over the so-called fiscal cliff reach a fevered pitch, it’s useful to consider the wisdom of farmers who use the downtime of winter as an opportunity to invest before the next growing season and harvest. Below is an excerpt from a December 2010 Fiscal Times column by economist Mark Thoma. He suggests that we use this economic winter as a time for robust government investment, not belt tightening, especially on critical infrastructure.　

Farmers face a yearly crop cycle that has a lot in common with business cycles. There is a boom period in the spring, summer, and fall when there never seem to be enough people or hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done. And there is also a down period – call it a recession – in winter.

The very best farmers are not idle during the winter. They use this time to repair equipment, expand capacity, and do other things to get ready for the next year’s planting and harvesting. In the spring, summer, and fall it is too costly to do these things because there is so much else to do, but in the winter there is lots of labor and equipment available for such tasks. This often requires farmers to take on new debt and pay it off after harvest, but farmers who take advantage of downtime to get ready for whatever the coming growing and harvest season might throw at them have an advantage over those who mostly remain idle during this time.

Boom times and recessions for entire economies are much the same. During boom times it is very costly to divert resources to construction and repair of the infrastructure necessary to promote economic growth. But during the economic winter, i.e. in recessions, when large quantities of labor, equipment, and raw materials are idle, the cost of such activities is relatively low. Governments that take advantage of this will be in a better position to compete in the global economy than governments that allow labor and other resources to sit idle waiting for things to improve. It does require an increase in the deficit, but if we follow the farmers’ lead and pay off the debt during boom times – something we’ve had trouble doing – we will be better off.

No matter what the government does, it will take longer than we’d like for the economy to reemploy its unused resources. But the government can help things along by taking advantage of the availability of low-cost labor and raw materials, rock bottom interest rates that make the cost of borrowing very low, and lots of infrastructure needs offering big benefits in transportation, environmental abatement, water and sewage systems, electrical grids, digital technology, and other areas. It is easy to find projects where the expected benefits far exceed the expected costs.

Political gridlock makes it unlikely that we can avoid leaving resources idle when there is so much that needs to be done and so many people are looking for work. Worse, deficit reduction based upon a false belt-tightening analogy that puts even more labor and resources on the sidelines is a mistake we should try to avoid.

Florida and North Carolina are closing out the year with an announcement that is big news for the southeastern United States and a significant step toward meeting the 2016 deadline for nationwide electronic tolling interoperability of U.S. toll facilities.

The Secretaries of Transportation for North Carolina and Florida announced December 19 that the Florida Sunpass and the North Carolina QUICK PASS will be fully functional on toll roads in either state by July 1, 2013.

The Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) will join this effort for its Peach Pass customers following Florida and North Carolina’s implementation.

This is a significant step in the four-year drive for nationwide electronic tolling interoperability that began when the U.S. Congress passed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) transportation authorization bill earlier this year.

It’s particularly significant because it shows what’s possible when all parties are determined to make it happen. For this deal to work, the three agencies will have to harmonize administrative systems and transponder functions across their borders. The actual mechanics still need to be addressed, but clearly there is strong political interest in achieving interoperability at the state and regional levels. We salute all three states for their leadership and commitment to electronic tolling interoperability.

The collaborative efforts of the three southeastern states to establish electronic tolling interoperability is reminiscent of the collaboration among three northeastern states to stop toll scofflaws. In August 2011, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire signed a Memoranda of Agreement that allows each state to impose sanctions on toll scofflaws who are residents of the other states. Before this agreement, one state had little leverage to make a resident of the other states pay the fees.

IBTTA’s Interoperability Committee, which is composed of representatives of IBTTA member toll agencies and companies that serve the toll industry, is working vigorously with all parties and stakeholders to achieve nationwide electronic tolling interoperability in the USA by 2016.

How do you earn 86% customer support for an 87% toll increase in the midst of a strained economic recovery? If you’re Kristi Lafleur, executive director of the Illinois Tollway, you make a powerful public case for refurbishing and expanding the state highway system and, in Kristi’s words, “turn weakness into strength.”

When Kristi told the Tollway’s story at IBTTA’s 80th Annual Meeting last month in Orlando, the audience was rapt. With 286 miles of roadway, responsibility for four major Interstates, and 27 Fortune 500 companies in the region, most of them along the tollway, the system is an economic backbone for the Chicagoland area. But the agency hadn’t seen a rate increase in three decades and was widely perceived as a creature of the suburbs.

After an 18-month capital review, the state adopted a 15-year, US$12-billion capital program, two-thirds of it devoted to reinvestments in the current system, funded by higher tolls. Public support was “critical to us getting what we needed,” Kristi said. “We made more friends and created more advocates out there in the community, but we also listened to what people wanted.”

The winning arguments:

• Previous investments in open road tolling had already saved commuters an average of 2.5 hours per week.
• Congestion still cost the Chicagoland region an estimated US$7 billion per year.
• A three-year delay in widening a key regional corridor would have increased project costs by US$400 million.
• The Tollway had demonstrated its commitment to efficient operations and non-toll revenue generation, introducing a four percent budget cut in 2011.

The agency also had to bust the myth that tolls were out of control, comparing the rate increase to the cost of a newspaper, a postage stamp, or a hamburger.

“We showed customers how much costs had gone up over similar periods of time,” she said. “What else has only increased 10 cents since 1958? Not much.”
In the end, of the 1,900 people who showed up for public hearings, 86% supported the toll increase.

On this week’s National Journal transportation blog, correspondent Fawn Johnson puts toll highways in uncomfortable company. “There is nothing that gets regular people more riled up than airlines’ checked bag fees, increased tolls, or sudden hikes in gas prices,” she writes. “They hate spending extra money on travel, especially when they feel they have no control over the seemingly random price.”

Toll agencies know that their pricing is anything but random, and in Illinois, the community has got the message. What are you doing to make an effective case for user financing, and how can IBTTA help?

Gallup released survey results today that gauge satisfaction with roads and highways in each country. The global average was a 59% satisfaction ranking, with the US ranking as the 26th most satisfied country (with 69% of the population satisfied with roads).

While it’s certainly commendable that a majority of those polled find their roads satisfactory, it’s a bit humbling that the United States—with a GDP of over $15 trillion—has a ranking equal to that of Georgia (the country), whose GDP is less than $25 billion.

And though transportation infrastructure has come onto the political radar for this year’s elections, Gallup provides a helpful reminder that outmoded and overworked roads are global issues, particularly since they have a very real effect on international trade and economic development.

IBTTA heartily supports Gallup’s conclusion that “All countries, particularly low-income and middle-income countries, must focus not only on improved road safety and fewer traffic accidents, but also on making long-term political and financial commitments to improving road networks …”

In continuing to look at the role of infographics and videos in educating the public about transportation infrastructure funding issues, it’s important to also examine how these tools can be used to educate the public and policymakers about public opinion.
HNTB’s 2012 America Thinks survey fact sheet clearly shows the power of combining statistics with graphics. Below are two examples:

How have you successfully used infographics?

Those of us within the transportation community accept as a given that much of our infrastructure is outdated and underfunded. But many in the general public have no idea of the scope of the problem, how years of insufficient investment have begun to snowball financially, or the dangers of continuing to put off dealing with this issue.

I believe that those of us “in the know” need to do a better job of communicating these hard truths to friends, neighbors, and the public. One great resource is this video recently released by Face the Facts USA:

They have also compiled some stats and resources here.

What are the best resources you’ve found for explaining transportation “facts of life”?

Reason Foundation’s Director of Transportation Policy Bob Poole is arguably one of the smartest—and most brutally honest—voices in the transportation policy community. His Surface Transportation Newsletter is always an enjoyable and insightful read and his most recent issue is particularly compelling. Check it out here. And while you’re there, become a subscriber so you can get his wisdom emailed right to you.

I draw your attention to two particularly informative pieces found in this issue.

Media Innumeracy

Poole deftly exposed a prime example of innumeracy in media coverage of the population growth in urban v suburban areas.

In the end, it’s as simple as the difference between numbers and rates. As he explained, “The suburbs began with a much larger population base than the urban cores, so they would have to grow by huge numbers to have a rate of growth equal to or better than their much smaller urban cores.”

While this may seem like a technicality, it has real implications for transportation funding and policy development. And as Poole concluded, “We need to base transportation policies, and all other policies, on what is actually going on, not what some people wish were going on.”

Congress’s Way of “Paying for” MAP-21

In a more dangerous example of numerical sleight of hand, Poole discussed how Congress “concocted” a scheme to pay for the multi-billion-dollar shortfall in the recently enacted MAP-21 by “tweaking” corporate pension rules over the next decade.

After exposing what he calls Congress’ “irresponsible actions,” Poole lays out the brutal truth that Congress has not yet found the will to address:

“I hope this episode illustrates to you the bankruptcy of the current federal transportation funding system. Unless Congress figures out a way to make the program self-supporting next time around (just two years hence), we can look forward to even more shenanigans of this sort. That is no way to create a long-term, sustainable source of highway funding.”

Well said, Bob.

President Obama’s statement regarding the Mars landing was illuminating:
“Tonight’s success, delivered by NASA, parallels our major steps forward towards a vision for a new partnership with American companies to send American astronauts into space on American spacecraft. That partnership will save taxpayer dollars while allowing NASA to do what it has always done best …”

What the President is describing is reminiscent of the public-private partnerships that have helped many states fund their roads, bridges, and tunnels in these tight economic times.

Understandably, voters oppose tax increases—an attitude shown in last week’s decisive defeat of a proposed 1% transportation sales tax in Atlanta—and politicians are generally unwilling to mandate them. But the transportation infrastructure “can” has been kicked down the road too often, and now that road is old, overburdened, and increasingly hazardous.

Luckily, tolling offers a way to maintain and improve our nation’s infrastructure without relying on tax increases, using the same kind of cutting-edge financing that the intelligent folks at NASA are using to supplement their taxpayer funds.