Robert Poole for the Reason Foundation: I’ve concluded that the way we fund and manage the U.S. highway system is broken and needs serious rethinking if it’s going to meet the needs of 21st century America.

The problems are legion, beginning with the huge direct cost of traffic congestion in America’s 200 or so urban areas — a whopping $160 billion per year just in wasted time and fuel. And while our highways and bridges are not “crumbling,” there are chronic problems of deferred maintenance, leading to many rough roads and a surprisingly large number of structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges. …