In planning the future of Missouri’s transportation infrastructure, it is critical to identify real priorities that will boost the state’s competitiveness and increase standards of living. MoDOT’s Long-Range Plan is designed to identify these priorities, but is only partially successful. The report points out that MoDOT’s current funding model is unsustainable, but does not recommend increased use of the “user pays” funding system to make up the shortfall, despite that model’s sustainability and economic advantages. While the report gives sufficient priority to providing for the infrastructure that taxpayers strongly demand, namely roads, it also surprisingly suggests costly expansions of inter- and intra-city passenger rail systems. Weak trends toward increased public transportation use do not justify the pre-emptive construction of expensive, fixed public transportation modes. To maximize the benefit of every dollar spent on transportation infrastructure, a better method is focusing on matching infrastructure supply with its actual demand, while supporting flexibility in the public transportation sector.
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