Graduate Student Writes about Road Financing for Polish Journal

Although Poland’s economic growth reached 3.5 percent last year and is expected to exceed that this year, the new member of the European Union still faces financial struggles. Many experts are pointing at the country’s 20 percent unemployment or lagging GDP per capita as barriers along the road to economic success. But graduate student Peter Gerner thinks about roads in more literal terms than most.

“Poland became a member of the European Union last May, and it still has a very poor road system with very few expressways,” Gerner said of his home country. In hopes of addressing this concern in Poland, Gerner, a Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) engineer who is working on a master’s degree in Mason’s Transportation, Policy, Operations and Logistics program, decided to share his expertise and knowledge. In an article published in the Journal of the Polish Motor Transport Institute, he explained how the United States has managed to build road systems despite dwindling funds from fuel taxes.

Gerner hopes his article on road financing will benefit Poland's inadequate transportation system.

“There’s less and less money from fuel taxes because cars are more fuel efficient, and the tax hasn’t been raised for years,” Gerner said.

To combat this problem in the United States, the federal and state governments have sought assistance from private developers, according to Gerner. “This is how highways now are probably going to be built,” he said. “The government obtains the right of way, and the private developer builds the road. All revenues go to the private businessman for 25 years, and then they return to the state or highway administration.”

Gerner noticed that his article, “A Few Notes about Road Financing,” attracted some attention when another Polish journal contacted him about writing on the same topic.

“Road financing is really a multi-faced process, and it could be very beneficial to the Polish government to use some of these financial schemes,” Gerner said.

Gerner is also working on a second article for the Journal of the Polish Motor Transport Institute about transportation security in the United States. “Security really is being taken seriously, especially in terms of infrastructure, tunnels and interchanges -- they are being watched,” Gerner said. He plans to complete his studies in August 2004 and will continue to work for VDOT. One day he hopes to use what he has learned as a student and VDOT engineer to help the European Union improve its road systems.