Highway Congestion - It's only getting worse
With the highway infrastructure deteriorating the way it is and with all the congestion around every major city. Why does the government seem to just "turn their heads" the other way from trucking?
Or at least it seems that way. The government wants to sink billions of dollars into the rail system and minimal money into the highways.
It boils down to - highways are crowded because our major cities have inadequate mass transit systems and poorly planned real estate development. Who has the biggest influence on the money to be spent on trucking and rail systems - politicians. How is this tied together, you ask?
You need to follow the money trail in order to see the answer to that question. You first must realize who is in control of mass transit systems and our real estate planning. Who is in real control of the politicians? Real Estate Developers who direct the campaign contributions of the real estate industry employees to the politicians who then ensure access to land they own; and deny access to the land they don’t own.
The largest contributors are the real estate developers and they have a lot of control over what the politicians do. The reason is this, residential development is the most lucrative way to make a lot of money off a little land. Here's an example; Owning 350 acres of land in central Ohio is valuable (one farm is going for $980,000 in Thurman OH right now).
BUT, being able to sell each 1/4 section of those 350 acres for $250,000 (the cost of a typical home around Washington, DC) is extraordinarily valuable [350 x 4 x $250,000 = $350,000,000]. The biggest real estate developers in the D.C. area own thousands of acres with a potential value of $1,000,000 per acre and that puts them in the Billionaire’s Club.
To stay in the Billionaire's Club, the Real Estate Developers encourage all the real estate development workers they employee, directly and indirectly - construction, plumbing, electrical, hauling, road building, sales, etc. - to contribute to those politicians the Real Estate Developers have developed relationships with whom spend the taxpayers money on new roads to provide access to the land the developers own and where the new houses will be built, and it is all pretty much completely legal. Politicians control zoning and road or rail access and in exchange they get donations they use to get re-elected.
The same is true of the railroads, but with a twist. The railroads compete with trucking directly for a portion of the freight market. Railroads only want to have trucks carry the short haul loads in the US, with Railroads owning all the long haul business.
Normally, the "market" would determine if Railroads deserve to "own" the long distance freight business if they could prove they are more efficient than Trucking. Unfortunately for the railroads, the market has already decided that trucks are more efficient for the high value items needed in small locations throughout the US.
Railroads are great at hauling massive amounts of coal, sand or wheat, but they are not so good at delivering six cars to the Toyota dealership in Richmond, VA from Kentucky by next Tuesday. So the Railroads cheat a little bit. They have something the Real Estate developers want - a means to move lots of commuters from the 1/4 acre lots that make developers rich to the high paying jobs in the city centers that taxpayers will stupidly support - rail lines.
And they trade their established rail lines to the real estate developers for the influence the developers have with politicians. The railroads get the politicians to delay and study new rail routes while at the same time the politicians don't do anything that will really relieve traffic congestion on the highways.
Even the HOT lane program in the DC area is actually designed to benefit the real estate development arm of Flour-Transurban who are planning to put in 20,000 houses along the new HOT lane routes in Virginia. It isn't supposed to relieve congestion, the HOT lanes are to make it possible for Flour-Transurban to get permits to build the houses.
Because trucking is more efficient for the high end freight hauling business, the competition between trucks and rail is rigged and truckers don't have the financial resources to compete in the game by out contributing to the politicians. And those politicians are not going to admit they allow traffic congestion to get worse and worse simply to decrease the efficiency of the trucking industry. Stay tuned to see what develops as more research is done, I guarantee you it is going to get very interesting.
Comments
This seems far-fetched. Trucking is largely done on free, entirely state-subsidized roads, while freight rail is largely done on privately owned and maintained rail lines. Seems like the free market actually picks rail.
LOL! roads are NOT free or state subsidized - trucks pay road taxes that is supposed to be used to maintain the road.
Railroads were built on land given/donated/free to them by the government, including miles of land on either side of the right of way. They made their money off of the sale of the land on either side - it is the centuries old subsidies from the govt that enables trains to operate today. Do you think they pay real estate taxes on that rail property? That is another direct, current subsidy to rail in the billions of dollars.
You forgot to mention anywhere the actual FUEL efficiency of trucks vs trains (or autos vs trains) even diesel powered trains are still far more efficient than trucks, once a train is moving it takes very little power to keep it going.
@Avery, I didn't forget to mention it. Because it is not a fact. There is no study to prove trains are more fuel efficient than trucks. Maybe in a perfect controlled environment, but no real world scenario.
Most if not all trains run off electric motors that are powered by generators. Trucks are all diesel powered.
Wow. Take off your tinfoil hat dude. There is no giant conspiracy out to kill trucking. The Federal government has been subsidizing the construction of roads with local governments at an 80/20 ratio for more than half a century. In that same time they've given a pittance to railroads. Just because companies align their businesses to make money, doesn't mean there's some shadowy conspiracy pulling the strings on every deal.
RJ - The federal govt has been picking up 100% of the Real Estate Taxes for the Railroad for 150 years. Who gets a bigger subsidy? Railroads. And "companies align their businesses to make money" is the definition of "hoping with another for success". You characterized it as a shadowy conspiracy - it is actually a very obvious market manipulation effort once one views the investment holdings of key congressmen who make it all happen. PS no one where tinfoil - it is aluminum.
Wow. Some railroads go land grants and paid for it by reduced rates for governement transport for a long, long time. Railroads pay property tax. Once upon a time, I spent several months researching local government annexation laws to see if they were unfairly adding railroad property. A few were. The steel wheel on steel rail is inherently more efficient that rubber tires on concrete. I still have the book, autographed by the Professor. Truckers pay a fuel tax, like automobile drivers, but their 80,000 pound loads tear up the pavement a lot faster than our SUVs. Fuel costs and hours-of-service laws took some long-haul trucks off the road and put them on trains, and sometimes, trains can compete in the less-than-500-miles market. But the trains have their own 'roadway', whereas the truckers share it with our SUVs and tiny econo-boxes.
Bobby, Railroads were given hundreds of thousands of miles of Govt owned land - and they paid for it by reducing freight rates for the entity that gave them the land? Nice spin. Get the guy that gave you your largest asset (hundreds of thousands of miles of land) and then get him to pay YOU a reduced rate for all that land - what a great scam. Steel on steel has inherently less friction than rubber on concrete is as true a statement as boats float better then trains - accurate but means nothing. Efficiency is not measured by how far you can move an object on a gallon of fuel - efficiency is typically measured in time to delivery. Time is money, no one says fuel is money.
:There is no study to prove trains are more fuel efficient than trucks. Maybe in a perfect controlled environment, but no real world scenario."
OK. Here's a real world scenario. CSX has a fuel efficiency of 436 ton-miles per gallon of diesel fuel. That's across their entire 21,000 mile system, and there's no reason to suspect that they're doing any better than their peers. Is your truck that efficient, Mr. Cox? Is anyone's?
One truck does as much damage to the road as 9600 cars( saferoads website). Trucks should pay 10000 times more than cars.
Railroads are like men - meant for rough and heavy traffic and are cheap to fix. Highways are like women - meant for smooth joyrides and are high maintenance.
Here is a government study regarding relative fuel efficiency, which concludes that rail is far more fuel-efficient than trucking:
http://www.fra.dot.gov/Downloads/Comparative_Evaluation_Rail_Truck_Fuel_...
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!