Transportation and Iowa's Economic Future

This is a study of how transportation policy can be fashioned to improve Iowa's long-term economic prospects. More than almost any other activity, sound transportation policy is only possible if good decisions are made by leaders in both the pub I ic and private sectors. This is because privately owned and operated vehicles or vessels use publicly owned and maintained facilities. Those vehicles or vessels typically pay for this use, so how public facilities are priced is as important a policy consideration as which facilities are provided. This research focuses on the state rather than local level. The emphasis is on transportation facilities that serve the state and policies to improve the contribution of these facilities to Iowa's economic prospects. We do not address local transportation issues, per se. While these issues are important, they are of a very different nature from those examined here. Also, we do not address air passenger transportation, and raiI road operations are examined in the context of specific issues such as agricultural transportation.