Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program (TPEC)

Persistent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11299/253213

This collection contains progress reports, white papers, and other publications from the Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program (TPEC). TPEC was created in response to a directive by the Minnesota Legislature for the Minnesota Department of Transportation to fund research at the University of Minnesota's Center for Transportation Studies, including research on "transportation policy and economic competitiveness, including, but not limited to, innovative transportation finance options and economic development, transportation impacts of industry clusters and freight, and transportation technology impacts on economic competitiveness."

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Browsing Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program (TPEC) by Subject "Transportation finance"

Now showing 1 - 15 of 15
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    Alternative Revenue Mechanisms for the Roadway System (Research Brief)
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2024-01) Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program
    In this research brief, TPEC researchers gathered data about current policies and practices in the US and abroad regarding alternative revenue mechanisms to help bridge the funding gap with decreasing fuel tax revenue.
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    Minnesota Roadway Funding: Revenue Sources & Distribution
    (Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program, University of Minnesota, 2020-07) Zhao, Jerry; Fonseca, Camila; Bean, Nate; Lari, Adeel
    Minnesota roadway funding comes from a combination of federal, state, and local sources. Federal funding comes primarily from the federal motor fuel tax, while most state funding comes from the three state highway user taxes: the state motor fuel tax, the registration tax, and the motor vehicle sales tax. These funds support the state trunk highway system that includes interstates and state highways, in addition to providing aid to local governments. Local highway funding comes from general funds, made up primarily of property taxes and assessments, in addition to a few dedicated local transportation taxes. This revenue is used to support highways and streets under the jurisdiction of counties, cities, and townships. The network of highways and local roads is essential to the state's economy and the daily activities of Minnesota residents. Maintaining, expanding, and operating this infrastructure is a major expense for the state and local governments inside Minnesota. Generating sufficient revenue for highways and streets remains a major challenge, and recent revenue projections estimate a shortfall of $18 billion in necessary funding between 2018 and 2037, for the state highway system alone. Understanding Minnesota's road financing structure is important to anticipate and address future transportation changes. This report details federal, state, and local government funding for the roadway system in Minnesota. It explores how roadway funding is generated and distributed, as well as the history of current funding mechanisms. Statistics from the Minnesota Transportation Finance Database are used throughout this paper.
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    Minnesota Roadway Funding: Revenue Sources & Distribution
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2024-11) Fonseca, Camila; Land, Matthew; Zhao, Jerry
    Minnesota roadway funding comes from a combination of federal, state, and local sources. Federal funding comes primarily from the federal motor fuel tax, while most state funding comes from the three state highway user taxes: the state motor fuel tax, the registration tax, and the motor vehicle sales tax. These funds support the state trunk highway system that includes interstates and state highways, in addition to providing aid to local governments. Local highway funding comes from general funds, made up primarily of property taxes and assessments, in addition to a few dedicated local transportation taxes. This revenue is used to support highways and streets under the jurisdiction of counties, cities, and townships. The network of highways and local roads is essential to the state's economy and the daily activities of Minnesota residents. Maintaining, expanding, and operating this infrastructure is a major expense for the state and local governments inside Minnesota. Generating sufficient revenue for highways and streets remains a major challenge, and recent revenue projections estimate a shortfall of $20 billion in necessary funding between 2023 and 2042, for the state highway system alone. Understanding Minnesota's road financing structure is important to anticipate and address future transportation changes. This report details federal, state, and local government funding for the roadway system in Minnesota. It explores how roadway funding is generated and distributed, as well as the history of current funding mechanisms. Statistics from the Minnesota Transportation Finance Database are used throughout this paper.
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    Minnesota Roadway Funding: Where Does It Come From and Where Does It Go? (Research Brief)
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2020-08) Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program
    This two-page research brief summarizes the TPEC white paper Minnesota Roadway Funding: Revenue Sources & Distribution, which is available at https://hdl.handle.net/11299/253534.
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    Minnesota Transportation Finance Database (Research Brief)
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2017-04) Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program
    This two-page research brief describes the Minnesota Transportation Finance Database created by TPEC researchers.
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    Minnesota Transportation Finance Database: Data Updated, New Analyses (Research Brief)
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2018-06) Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program
    This two-page research brief summarizes a new analysis of transportation funding redistribution in Minnesota, which resulted in updating the Minnesota Transportation Finance Database. It corresponds to Minnesota Transportation Funding Redistribution (2010-2015): Who Contributes More and Who Receives More?
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    Minnesota Transportation Finance Database: Visualization Tool Enables Access and Usage (Research Brief)
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2019-02) Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program
    This two-page research brief describes a data visualization tool added to the Minnesota Transportation Finance Database.
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    Minnesota Transportation Funding Redistribution (2009-2014): Who Contributes More, Who Receives More?
    (Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program, University of Minnesota, 2017-03-04) Zhao, Jerry; Lari, Adeel; Lou, Shengnan
    The focus of this analysis is the redistribution of transportation funding across Minnesota. Transportation funding comes from all levels of government – the federal government, the state government, and local governments that include counties, cities, and townships. Transportation funding that are directly generated by local taxes and fees are used in corresponding local jurisdictions. Federal or state transportation funding – generated through a variety of federal or state revenue sources – are also contributed by people in local jurisdictions, but these revenues are allocated through certain budgetary procedures and may or may not be used in the original point of collection. Hence are the questions of transportation funding redistribution: What are the areas that contribute more to transportation funding? What are those that receive more? What are the areas that contribute more than they receive, or verse versa? Those are empirical questions to be answered in this report, for the purpose to facilitate informed decision making.
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    Minnesota Transportation Funding Redistribution (2010-2015): Who Contributes More and Who Receives More?
    (Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program, University of Minnesota, 2018-03) Zhao, Jerry; Lari, Adeel; Fonseca, Camila
    The focus of this analysis is the redistribution of transportation funding across Minnesota. Transportation funding comes from all levels of government – the federal government, the state government, and local governments that include counties, cities, and townships. The redistribution of transportation funding arises the following questions: What areas contribute the most to transportation funding? What areas receive more funding? What areas contribute more than what they receive? Or verse versa. This report aims to answer these empirical questions with the purpose of facilitating informed decision making. In this report, we aggregate or allocate data to the county level for analysis and then present the aggregated results at the district level for a six-year period, between 2010 and 2015. We found that local governments fund a huge proportion of the transportation infrastructure in Minnesota, primarily through the property taxes they collect. The Twin Cities metro district contributes slightly more than what it receives. In addition, this district receives the largest share of funding for transit services. Districts in Greater Minnesota receive more funding that they contribute, mainly due to lower population density. Finally, we found a cost of 7 cents per vehicle mile traveled in the state. This cost tends to be much higher in counties located in the north.
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    Minnesota Transportation Funding Redistribution (2015-2020): Who Contributes More and Who Receives More?
    (Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program, University of Minnesota, 2022-04) Fonseca, Camila; Zeerak, Raihana; Zhao, Jerry; Lari, Adeel
    The focus of this analysis is the redistribution of transportation funding across Minnesota. Transportation funding comes from all levels of government – the federal, the state, and local governments that include counties, cities, and townships. The redistribution of transportation funding arises the following questions: What areas contribute the most to transportation funding? What areas receive more funding? What areas contribute more than what they receive? Or vice versa. This report aims to answer these empirical questions with the purpose of facilitating informed decision making. In this report, we aggregate or allocate data to the county level for analysis and then present the aggregated results at the district level for a six-year period, between 2015 and 2020. We found that local governments fund a huge proportion of the transportation infrastructure in Minnesota, primarily through the property taxes they collect. The Metro District contributes slightly more than what it receives. In addition, this district receives the largest share of funding for transit services. Districts in Greater Minnesota receive more funding that they contribute, mainly due to lower population density. Finally, we found a cost of 8.7 cents per vehicle mile traveled in the state. This cost tends to be much higher in counties located in the north.
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    Minnesota Transportation Funding Redistribution: 2015–2020 (Research Brief)
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2022-07) Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program
    This two-page research brief summarizes a recent analysis of transportation funding redistribution in Minnesota that looked at the six-year period between 2015 and 2020 (Minnesota Transportation Funding Redistribution (2015-2020): Who Contributes More and Who Receives More?).
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    Minnesota Transportation Funding: How Are Federal and State Funds Redistributed? (Research Brief)
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2019-02) Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program
    This two-page research brief summarizes how federal and state transportation funding is redistributed in Minnesota.
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    Motorization Trends In Minnesota
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2023-06) Fonseca, Camila; Zeerak, Raihana; Lari, Adeel; Zhao, Jerry
    The analysis of motorization trends in the state of Minnesota is important because it reveals changes in driving behavior that impact transportation planning and funding across the state. Changes in traveling habits have implications for transportation revenue streams in Minnesota, particularly for roadway infrastructure investment. This report presents an analysis of motorization and highway and roadway funding trends in Minnesota between 1980 and 2021. Key motorization patterns include the number of registered vehicles, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), fuel consumption, and vehicle crashes. In addition, this report analyses the evolution of roadway revenues and expenses at the federal, state, and local levels. The analysis in this report includes an overview of the general trends for the state as well as an overview of the changes by county. Data for the analysis come from the Minnesota Transportation Finance Database. The report has several interesting findings about motorization in Minnesota. For instance, the number of registered vehicles has continually increased since 1980, although it has slowed since the 2000s. However, the number of registered vehicles per capita and per county indicate significant declines in recent years. Similarly, the number of alternative fuel vehicles, particularly electric vehicles (EVs), has been increasing. Distance traveled, measured by VMT, and fuel consumption increased, although their per capita measures have also decreased, particularly since 2020. Lastly, while overall the number of vehicle crashes has declined since 2004, the number of fatal crashes rose significantly in 2021. Overall, Minnesota's trends are consistent with the national pattern. The persistence of these trends in the future will have consequences in future roadway funding. In particular, fuel consumption and its long-term declines due to increases in fuel efficiency standards could cause continuous revenue reductions unless the state roadway funding structure is adjusted.
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    Motorization Trends in Minnesota
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2019-02) Zhao, Jerry; Lari, Adeel; Fonseca, Camila; Bean, Nate
    The analysis of motorization trends in the state of Minnesota is important because it reveals changes in driver behavior that impact transportation planning and funding across the state. Changes in traveling habits have implications for transportation revenue streams in Minnesota, particularly for roadway infrastructure investment. This report presents an analysis of motorization and highway and roads funding trends in Minnesota between 1980 and 2016. Key motorization patterns include the number of registered vehicles, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and fuel consumption. In addition, this report analyses the evolution of roadway revenues and expenses at the federal, state, and local levels. The analysis in this report includes an overview of the general trends for the state as well as an overview of the changes by county. Data for the analysis come from the Minnesota Transportation Finance Database. The report has several interesting findings about motorization in Minnesota. For instance, the number of registered vehicles has continually increased since 1980, although it has slowed since the 2000s. Over the same period of time, distance travelled, measured by VMT, and fuel consumption increased, although their per capita measures have been decreasing. Overall, Minnesota?s trends are consistent with the national pattern. The persistence of these trends in the future will have consequences in future roadway funding. In particular, fuel consumption and its long term declines due to increases in fuel efficiency standards could cause continuous revenue reductions unless the state roadway funding structure is adjusted.
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    Motorization Trends in Minnesota: 1980-2021 (Research Brief)
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2023-11) Transportation Policy and Economic Competitiveness Program
    In this research brief, TPEC researchers analyzed motorization trends in Minnesota between 1980 and 2021. The trends have implications for transportation revenues in Minnesota, particularly for roadway infrastructure planning and investment.