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21. The Great Streetcar Conspiracy

Author:
Randal O'Toole
Publication Date:
06-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Streetcars are the latest urban planning fad, stimulated partly by the Obama administration's preference for funding transportation projects that promote "livability" (meaning living without automobiles) rather than mobility or cost-effective transportation. Toward that end, the administration wants to eliminate cost-effectiveness requirements for federal transportation grants, instead allowing non-cost-effective grants for projects promoting so-called livability. In anticipation of this change, numerous cities are preparing to apply for federal funds to build streetcar lines.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, Government, Political Economy, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
United States

22. Ending Congestion by Refinancing Highways

Author:
Randal O'Toole
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Although gasoline taxes have long been the main source of funding for building, maintaining, and operating America's network of highways, roads, and streets, the tax is at best an imperfect user fee. As such, Congress and the states should take action to transition from gas taxes to more efficient vehicle-mile fees.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Communications, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
United States

23. Lost in translation: why Nigeria's police don't implement democratic reforms

Author:
Alice Hills
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The transfer of western norms and practices to police forces in West Africa is a substantial part of a billion-dollar business. Out of the US$452 million the Obama administration requested for law enforcement and narcotics control in Africa during the financial year 2010, US$8 million was allocated to United States officials and contractors for police training, infrastructure and equipment in Liberia alone, while between 2002 and 2009 the United Kingdom channelled some £37 million to reforming or improving the security and justice sector of Nigeria, a key anchor state for UK policies in sub-Saharan Africa (hereafter Africa).
Topic:
Infrastructure
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Liberia, and Nigeria

24. Cambodia's Bumpy Development Road: Implications for US Interests

Author:
Donald Jameson
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Cambodia in late 2010, she told senior Cambodian government officials "this does not look like the country I have been reading about in the press." Most first-time visitors to Phnom Penh would likely react similarly. The city hosts a vibrant society, with traffic-clogged streets, a proliferation of stylish restaurants and boutiques, and buildings under construction everywhere, many of them high-rise apartments and office blocks. If the visitor were to venture outside the capital, large-scale investment in infrastructure, especially roads and bridges, with construction underway on additional projects are what greet the eye. In addition, there are extensive land clearing projects underway for new plantations to grow rubber, palm oil, cashews and other tropical products, as well as new industrial sites springing up along main transportation arteries. In short, Cambodia is clearly a country on the move economically.
Topic:
Development, Foreign Aid, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
United States, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia

25. Intercity Buses: The Forgotten Mode

Author:
Randal O'Toole
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The debate over President Obama's fantastically expensive high-speed rail program has obscured the resurgence of a directly competing mode of transportation: intercity buses. Entrepreneurial immigrants from China and recently privatized British transportation companies have developed a new model for intercity bus operations that provides travelers with faster service at dramatically reduced fares.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, Infrastructure, and Governance
Political Geography:
United States and China

26. Beyond treasuries: A foreign direct investment program for U.S. infrastructure

Author:
Geraldine McAllister and Joel H. Moser
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
In his jobs address to a joint session of Congress last week, President Obama returned to a familiar theme: a call for nontraditional infrastructure investment as a generator of economic growth and, ultimately, jobs. The President's frequent references to “private investment” and “fully paid” infrastructure are encouraging, yet there is no assurance that domestic private capital investment alone is sufficient to reverse the degradation of the nation's infrastructure. As host to the largest flows of inward foreign direct investment (FDI), it is time that the United States employs this critical source of capital in tackling the nation's infrastructure deficit.
Topic:
Economics, Labor Issues, Infrastructure, Foreign Direct Investment, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States

27. U.S. Foreign Aid: Investing in Countries that Help Themselves

Author:
Daniel Yohannes
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
Daniel Yohannes, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, discusses the MCC's work with Isobel Coleman, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Topic:
Agriculture, International Trade and Finance, Foreign Aid, Infrastructure, and Governance
Political Geography:
United States

28. Sustainable Water Systems: Step One - Redefining the Nation's Infrastructure Challenge

Author:
David Monsma, Regan Nelson, and Ray Bolger
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
During the past 150 years, a complex water infrastructure has been built throughout the U.S. to supply homes and businesses with clean water, collect and treat wastewater and manage stormwater – and an equally complex regulatory system has evolved alongside it. A generation of progress has been made under the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. However, serious challenges still exist for the nation's freshwater resources, including insufficient progress in achieving water quality goals, overuse of water resources, and looming challenges associated with global climate change, including droughts, heavy storm events and flooding. Meanwhile, water and wastewater utilities are struggling with aged infrastructure that requires upgrades or replacement. Control of urban storm water and rural runoff will require large new investments. Appropriate sources of funding and affordability of these investments also requires attention.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Water, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
United States

29. High-Speed Rail Is Not "Interstate 2.0"

Author:
Randal O'Toole
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The administration has likened President Obama's high-speed rail plan to President Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System. Yet there are crucial differences between interstate highways and high-speed rail. First, before Congress approved the Interstate Highway System, it had a good idea how much it would cost. In contrast, Congress approved $8 billion for high-speed rail without knowing the total cost, which is likely to be at least $90 billion.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Government, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
United States

30. The Citizens' Guide to Transportation Reauthorization

Author:
Randal O'Toole
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Sometime in 2010 or 2011, Congress expects to decide how to spend the $250 billion or more of federal gas taxes and other highway user fees that will be collected over the next six years. The process of doing so is called surface transportation reauthorization. A major point of contention in this law is how much of our transportation system should be centrally planned and how much should be built and operated in response to the needs of actual transportation users.
Topic:
Economics and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
United States