Transportation Futures

Transportation infrastructure connects
people to economic opportunity.

During the Industrial Revolution and into the 21st century, liquid fuels and internal combustion engines drastically reduced the cost, complexity, and impacts of constructing infrastructure while substantially mitigating the risks associated with moving across increasingly longer distances. Today, automobiles replace passenger trains and buses just as commercial aviation has supplanted the steamship. Few people alive today can recall what preceded this era of independence and many struggle to imagine a life without this panoply of inexpensive choices for personal and personalized mobility.

In 2024, a person who wishes to travel 3,200 kilometers (2000 miles) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Seattle, Washington, can do so for less than a days’ wages, paying roughly 10 cents per mile for a safe and comfortable commercial aviation flight. Travel by passenger train is often costlier and increases the time spent by a factor of ten, with increased risks on every front. The impact of technology on the mobility and logistics sector in just one century is indisputable and has created an abundance of options.

An abundance of energy and resources created a world where mobility and logistics services are accessible to everyone. Now, an abundance of data and insights will drive the development of new models of finance that accelerate infrastructure development and further drive down the cost of transportation infrastructure, mobility services, and logistics operations.

An Infrastructure Revolution

Today, another revolution in energy is being supercharged by access to massive datasets sourced from the crowd and stored in the cloud.  Analysis of this data is the foundation of an economy that operates on credit, anticipated cash flow, and the use of capital investments to reduce operating expenses. An abundance of capital investment portends a future where the construction and operation of infrastructure will not require taxation.

Access to near-zero-cost energy through locally-owned resources is likewise a driver of efficiency, in a distributed and flexible network of energy production and transportation conveyances. Solar photovoltaic technology created energy independence for millions of people, creating immediate returns on an investment in infrastructure. Transportation infrastructure is the next frontier for individual investors who will reap a long-term return from their support of infrastructure development. This same infrastructure can and will become a source of wealth for the hundreds of millions of people who can benefit from the success of the highway system as shareholders in their own transportation future.

Moving Forward

An economic system that allows for individual investment in and unrestricted access to the delivery of goods and services creates opportunity for everyone, even those with few resources. When infrastructure investments lead to increased quality and availability while reducing costs and risks to the consumer, the overall economic benefits play out across entire communities, across supply chains, throughout networks, and around the globe.

What leads to a reduced cost for transportation? What types of investments can produce a return that supports a transition away from government-driven taxation and ideologically-constrained transportation reductionism promoted by a scarcity mindset? How can transportation infrastructure instead support economic prosperity and individual advancement and security even in the absence of population growth, travel demand growth, and economic growth?

Creating Opportunities for Investment

Launched in 2017, the ACES Northwest Network advanced the adoption of automated, connected, electric, and shared technologies in mobility, logistics and energy, in partnership with more than two dozen Northwest organizations. ACES Northwest Network affiliates continue to demonstrate opportunities for investment in ACES technologies in the Pacific Northwest and beyond against the backdrop of the core values of sustainability, equity, cooperation, and accessibility. The Mobility Marketplaces concept is the heart of the ACES vision for self-sustaining and sustainable infrastructure that improves connectivity for all.

A revolution in infrastructure finance and operations is driven by ubiquitous connectivity, data aggregation and machine learning. The Transportation Futures program at the Discovery Institute offers a clear-eyed examination of the wide range of possibilities afforded by these technologies. Through the Cascadia Center for Regional Development, Transportation Futures associates host Innovations and Futures Events with industry and investment partners. These events facilitate collaboration on infrastructure finance and sustainability through the work of the International Motorway Association and the Mobility Credit Consortium.

Innovations and Futures events and our two initiatives are delivered through the work of Institute fellows, including Transportation Futures Fellow Scott O. Kuznicki and Associate Fellows working with Evergreen Futures.

Evergreen Futures Fellowship

Evergreen Futures Fellowship participants conduct research and economic development projects that connect investors to new opportunities in mobility, logistics, and energy. With a Pacific Northwest focus and global latitude, we advance the adoption of the ACES technologies by demonstrating opportunities for investment in infrastructure and services. Evergreen Futures fellowship participants apply technology to transportation safety challenges while optimizing the performance of the transportation system and infrastructure.

The ongoing and generous support of donors is supporting additional Evergreen Futures Fellowships in 2025 ahead of the first conclave of the International Motorway Association in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2026.

Projects in 2025 address livability in cities and traffic safety on motorways.

• Network Topology Approach for Creating Safer Streets: Urban Arterial Road Operations
• Motorway Finance and Optimization Opportunities in Washington State
• Energy Recovery and Curbside Management Opportunities with Electric Vehicles

International Motorway Association

Focused on transportation infrastructure development, the International Motorway Association is building a coalition of with industry expertise and roadway users. Motorways are limited-access multi-lane divided highways with a design that eliminates crossing and turning conflicts. Referred to freeways, turnpikes, autostrada, the autobahn, these facilities represent the frontier of low-cost, high-efficiency transportation. The IMA is focused on providing technical guidance addressing the safety and capacity challenges on motorways, with a focus on promoting order and unleashing the absolute flexibility of the motorway operational model. In addition, IMA experts are developing finance models that leverage the ACES technologies to drive down the cost of energy used on motorways while providing regional funding for the improvement of the adjacent environment, highway connections, and the travel experience.

Mitigating the impacts of motorways ensures that their primary mission remains intact: Attracting traffic from lower-order roads in support of the goals of the safety initiative known as Vision Zero. Without a functioning motorway system, it is not possible to achieve Vision Zero! At the core of the system is the motorway, the backbone of commerce and low-cost travel, a conduit for energy and nexus of finance. Motorway-driven finance of local projects will lead to a drastic improvement in connectivity and safety in the City of Sheboygan and across the region, facilitating the construction of roundabouts, active transportation facilities, and new link roads that attract traffic from lower-order roads, creating safer, calmer, and quieter neighborhoods while improving access to city centers and commercial areas.

Mobility Credit Consortium

Customer loyalty and rewards programs continue to grow in popularity and value, driven by actionable insights from transaction data. These programs have created non-monetary payment ecosystems where the available quantity of points and miles is readily managed, with striking similarities to the growth of cryptocurrency. The underlying technology, blockchain, holds substantial promise for mobility and logistics services, offering unparalleled privacy and flexibility for users.

If this a fungible system of credits in the mobility ecosystem is to support a new era of social responsibility in mobility services, the architecture and function of this system must be rules-based and self-governed. Transportation Futures affiliates are collaborating with more than a dozen industry-leading experts in finance, climate technology, infrastructure, and mobility services to develop and deliver an independently-governed consortium to develop, promote, and sustain the growth of an ecosystem focused on providing opportunities to individuals.

Our Future

The work of Transportation Futures continues to create opportunities for investment in the Pacific Northwest and beyond, including in cities like Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where new approaches to infrastructure management hold the potential to create an ideal testbed for autonomous mobility and cutting-edge automation systems. Our long-term strategic plan supports a vision of abundance, opportunity, and investment, reflected in the themes of the annual COSM Technology Summit.