Transportation—Keeping Minnesota moving

10/26/2006

Which transportation projects to emphasize and how to finance them are sources of disagreement among urban and rural interests, transit and road advocates—and the three leading candidates for governor.

Conrad Defiebre,
Star Tribune
Last update: October 26, 2006 – 7:41 AM

Roads across Minnesota are in their worst shape in decades, according to Minnesota Department of Transportation studies. Rush-hour commuters in the Twin Cities metro area waste an average of 43 hours a year stuck in traffic, burning 28 extra gallons of gasoline and costing $722 in time and direct expenses, other research has shown. Transit options here pale in comparison with those of many similar-sized regions.

Financing controversies and shortfalls have slowed or stalled everything from rebuilding the Crosstown Hwy. 62/Interstate 35W interchange, the state’s worst traffic bottleneck, to the startup of the Northstar commuter rail line between Minneapolis and the northwest exurbs. In addition, some money targeted for rural highway projects has been diverted to keep Twin Cities road work going, even though deaths and injuries occur disproportionately on rural roads.

Nearly everyone agrees that all this is the result of chronic underfunding of the state’s transportation needs—by as much as $2 billion a year. That has been exacerbated by a recent surge in the cost of the concrete, steel and other materials that go into road, bridge and transit projects.

But the funding gap has been growing for nearly two decades, largely unaddressed. Minnesota’s gas tax, for example, hasn’t moved from 20 cents a gallon since 1988.

Deep partisan, regional and ideological divides keep policymakers bickering over how to raise more money and how to split it up between rural and metro needs or between highway and transit solutions.