Abstract:
Transportation infrastructure is expensive, costs are increasing, and across the United States, federal spending on transportation is decreasing as a proportion of overall national spending. Local governments are under increasing pressure to generate revenue to meet project needs. In response, they have turned to ballot measures as one method to raise funds. It remains unclear which characteristics of transportation funding measures and the communities they are held in increase the likelihood of passage. Using regression modelling, this study analyzes what variables explain measure passage of local transportation funding measures on ballots in California, Oregon, and Washington from 1990-2015. Results indicate that sociodemographic features do not help explain passage of measures and that other unobserved factors may be driving measure passage.
