CANADA'S HIGHWAYS: THE FUTURE

In the current climate of fiscal restraint, the resources available for both maintenance and new road construction in Canada have become seriously limited. Competition for shares of the budget dollar among various government program sectors is increasingly intense and both technical and economic justifications for funding allocations are subject to very detailed scrutiny. In addition, the necessity of planning appropriate long-term strategies to deal with this funding situation has become paramount for the roads sector. In response to this situation the Roads and Transportation Association of Canada (RTAC) has, in the last two years, launched two major initiatives to help provide its members with both technical and economic arguments to support their cases. One of these revolves around the development of a National Highway Policy for Canada. The second explores the road funding situation in Canada from the perspective of its economic impacts and is called the Economic Impacts of Road Investment (EIRI) Study. This report deals with the latter. The first part of the EIRI study was launched in 1987 and developed two major statistical profiles of both the road system in the country and its roadbuilding industry. The second phase of the work attempted to look ahead to provide some information which could be used as a basis for the development of appropriate road infrastructure investment strategies in the future. To do this, a DELPHI forecasting approach was taken and focused on three primary areas: (1) How would the intensity of use of the Canadian road system change between now and the year 2001? (2) How would the cost of building and operating the Canadian road system change in the same period and what would this mean for the roadbuilding sector of the economy? (3) What factors (technological, economic, social, etc.) might affect road infrastructure investment patterns for the future? This report presents a discussion of the background and methodology for the study, forecasts and underlying assumptions, key developments, and conclusions.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/1895102006
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Association of Canada (TAC)

  401-1111 Prince of Wales Drive
  Ottawa, Ontario  Canada 
• Publication Date: 1990

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 74 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Delphi method; Economic impacts; Finance; Financing; Forecasting; Highway maintenance; Infrastructure; Investments; Road construction; Strategic planning; Time duration
• Candidate Terms: Highway economics
• Uncontrolled Terms: Long term
• Geographic Terms: Canada
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00603263
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 1-895102-00-6
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 31 1991 12:00AM