Politics-as-usual won't meet the nation's 21st Century transportation needs -- but that's exactly what American commuters are getting from the federal government while gridlock stalls the next six-year transportation bill.

The last six-year bill, known by the awkward acronym SAFETEA-LU, expired 15 months ago, and Congress has since approved short-term extensions, the latest until March, that make it nearly impossible for states to plan for larger, multi-year projects.

Congress and the Obama administration should approve a new bill in the first half of 2011. After that, campaigns for the 2012 presidential election will make it nearly impossible to make the hard decisions required to meet -- and pay for -- the nation's transportation needs.

At issue is how to pay for hundreds of billions of dollars of transportation improvements and shore up the depleted Highway Trust Fund, supported largely by fuel taxes. The Obama administration has already signaled that it won't support an increase in the 18.4-cent federal gasoline tax, which hasn't risen since 1993. Opposing a gas tax increase may be good politics, but it's also poor policy. Inflation alone has eroded the purchasing power of the federal gas tax by 80%.

In the long run, federal and state governments must find other ways to pay for transportation. Automobile fuel efficiency has doubled since the 1950s, and gas tax revenues trail the rising costs of maintaining roads and bridges.

Still, shifting to other revenue sources, such as odometer charges, will take years. Planning for those changes must start now; meanwhile, a short-term increase in the gas tax is needed as a stopgap measure.

As it stands, the nation's transportation needs are not being met. In 2008, a bipartisan transportation policy and revenue study commission recommended more than double the spending, up to $340 billion a year. Transportation spending creates hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs and sustains the nation's network to move goods and services.

But the next transportation bill must be more than a list of projects. Given the energy and environmental challenges of the new century, it must lay out a comprehensive national transportation policy -- a vision that hasn't updated since the nation built the interstate highway system more than 50 years ago.

Any new national transportation plan must include greater investments in intercity rail and transit systems that relieve congestion, conserve energy, preserve air quality and lower the enormous costs of maintaining and expanding highways.

Developing such a plan and funding it are tall orders calling for courage and commitment to the nation's future, not politics as usual or more stalling.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110103/OPINION01/101030316/America-needs-to-set-its-transportation-agenda-soon#ixzz19zD4kWs4