2010 and Beyond: A Vision of America's Transportation Future

In the 1950s the Eisenhower administration embarked on a program that literally changed the face of America. The interstate highway system was built, catapulting the nation into the modern era of transportation. This revolutionary development enhanced economic growth, added to personal mobility, reduced transactional business expenses, and offered housing oportunities undreamed of until this point in U.S. history. For half a century the nation lived on this legacy.

Now the roads are congested, waiting time for truckers at ports has increased exponentially, and what was once an American dream--rapid and reliable highway travel--has been converted for many into an American nightmare. It is time to revisit the issue of national transportation.

In this book, which emanated from what is arguably the most comprehensive study of transportation in a generation, Hudson Institute calls for revolutionary changes in the financing, technology, and management of the nation's surface transportation system. This study contends that changes are essential if the American economy is to progress without major impediments. Since these changes are likely to take a generation to work their way fully through the nation's surface transportation system, the time to begin is now.