Our Research
Wisconsin’s transportation system is at a crossroads. The state’s roads and bridges are aging and maintenance needs are increasing. Funding for transit service has been slashed . Yet, the state continues to increase spending on highway expansion projects, despite the fact that driving in Wisconsin is on the decline. Road Overkill looks at seven recent highway expansion projects in Wisconsin and finds that traffic has failed on those highways has failed to materialize as transportation planners expected. Before investing hundreds of millions of dollars in even more highway capacity, Wisconsin officials should review those projects to ensure that they are still worthwhile investments in an era of reduced growth in driving.
(May 2013)The Driving Boom - a six decade-long period of steady growth in per-capita driving in the United States - is now over. We don't yet know what will replace it. Will members of the Millennial generation continue to drive less than previous generations as they age? Will they revert to the driving patterns of their parents? Or will advances in technology and changes in transportation and housing preferences lead to further declines in driving in the years to come? A New Direction: Our Changing Relationship with Driving and the Implications for America's Future explores these different possible futures and their high-stakes ramifications for transportation policy in the United States.
(May 2013)Washington’s strong clean energy policies have made it a national leader in wind energy and in energy efficiency. However, the state’s potential for solar power remains virtually untapped. Washington can start taking advantage of its full potential for solar energy by developing its capacity for rooftop solar power.
(April 2013)Weather-related disasters kill or injure hundreds of Americans each year and cause billions of dollars in damage. Climate science tells us that global warming will lead to increases in the frequency or severity of some types of extreme weather events that often cause disaster in the United States, while also causing changes - such as sea level rise - that will make even routine weather events more destructive. In the Path of the Storm reviews recent weather-related disasters in the United States and explores the latest science on the links between global warming and extreme weather.
(April 2013)The ability to see how government uses the public purse is fundamental to democracy. State governments across the country have made their checkbooks transparent by creating online transparency portals – government-operated websites that allow visitors to see who receives state money and for what purposes. Following the Money 2013, our fourth annual ranking of states' progress toward online spending transparency, documents the progress states have made in the past year in empowering citizens to track state spending.
(March 2013)