Overview
A few guides that put the issue of infrastructure in context.
CQ Researcher - Aging Infrastructure from Sept 2007
CQ Researcher - High Speed Trains from May 2009
CRS Report to Congress - Surface Transportation Congestion:
Policy and Issues from Feb 2008
Note: CRS Reports are researched and created for the benefit of Congress.
Definitions
What exactly is "transportation infrastructure?" Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be one compelling definition. Instead, most definitions focus on the idea of infrastructure.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language (2007) provides a crisp definition, particularly #2:
2. The basic facilities, services, and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society, such as transportation and communications systems, water and power lines, and public institutions including schools, post offices, and prisons.
inˈfra•strucˈtur•al adj. Usage Note: The term infrastructure has been used since 1927 to refer collectively to the roads, bridges, rail lines, and similar public works that are required for an industrial economy, or a portion of it, to function. The term also has had specific application to the permanent military installations necessary for the defense of a country. Perhaps because of the word's technical sound, people now use infrastructure to refer to any substructure or underlying system. Big corporations are said to have their own financial infrastructure of smaller businesses, for example, and political organizations to have their infrastructure of groups, committees, and admirers. The latter sense may have originated during the Vietnam War in the use of the word by military intelligence officers, whose task it was to delineate the structure of the enemy's shadowy organizations. Today we may hear that conservatism has an infrastructure of think tanks and research foundations or that terrorist organizations have an infrastructure of people sympathetic to their cause. The Usage Panel finds this extended use referring to people to be problematic, however. Seventy percent of the Panelists find it unacceptable in the sentence FBI agents fanned out to monitor a small infrastructure of persons involved with established terrorist organizations.
The following government definition comes from the Department of Homeland security, National Infrastructure Protection Plan (pg110):
Infrastructure. The framework of interdependent networks and systems comprising identifiable industries, institutions (including people and procedures), and distribution capa-bilities that provide a reliable flow of products and services essential to the defense and economic security of the United States, the smooth functioning of government at all levels, and society as a whole. Consistent with the definition in the Homeland Security Act, infrastructure includes physical, cyber, and/or human elements.
Greetings
This year the 2009-2010 debate resolution for the NFA Lincoln Douglas debate is:
RESOLVED: THAT THE USFG SHOULD SUBSTANTIALLY REFORM DOMESTIC TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE
This guide will help you find information about the transportation system of the United States. Separate tags will designate books, articles, government resources, NGOs, and other material.
About the resolution. There are three components of this resolution that need to remain in focus as you construct your argument.
1. USFG - Remember this resolution deals with the United States Federal Government. How can the U.S. government change transportation. You'll not want to focus on state and local, unless part of your argument involves how the Federal Government contributes to those entities.
2. Substantatially Reform - You'll want to look at ways transportation can be fundamentally improved or changed. Proposing the creation of an interstate dirigible fleet would be outside the scope of this debate, unless you could bring it back around to other transportation changes.
3. Domestic Transportation Infrastructure - You don't have to be concerned with trips to the moon or international travel. Local, however, could be considered in some situations. Planes, trains, automobiles, bicycles, boats and dirigibles are all fair game. Okay, maybe not dirigibles.
Feedback
Always useful to know what more this guide can provide. Please supply any thoughts, comments, and suggestions.
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