An Interstate System for the 21st Century

The interstate highway system will be 50 years old in 2006. This article discusses how the federal funding system created to build the interstates may have outlived its usefulness, and gives suggestions on how funding should change to meet the demands of the future. Although tolling and public-private partnerships can play an important role in 21st century highways, the author argues that there are still important reasons why continued federal involvement is necessary. One reason is that there is a need for direct, high-speed routes to and from places that are now major metropolitan areas, but that were not part of the original 1950s set of maps. Another reason is that the interstate system is an integral part of interstate commerce, and facilitating interstate commerce is a constitutionally-given power of the federal government. Toll financing and public-private partnerships would be most useful in adding truck-only capacity to key portions of the interstate system and in building entirely new links in the system.