It is often discussed that investment in our transportation infrastructure is suffering. Fortress Investment Group has noted publicly, an estimated $3.6 trillion will be required to repair existing infrastructure in the U.S. Much of that represents roads ($1.73 trillion) plus airports ($135 billion) and rails ($100 million).

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) released the following statement on H.R. 5021, the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014, a bill introduced in the House by Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), and cosponsored by Shuster:

“We have an immediate, critical need to address the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund and extend the current surface transportation law. This bill does that in a responsible way with policies that have all previously received strong bipartisan and bicameral support. If Congress fails to act, thousands of transportation projects and hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country will be at risk.”

It would seem from the above information that investment in our transportation infrastructure is lagging behind need but in fact, there has been substantial investment from a variety of big dollar investment firms who are betting on improvements in our current infrastructure beyond innovation that looks like Google cars that drive themselves and Tesla electric cars. Even Elon Musk recently reported that he thinks jet packs will never be part of our future.

Should we be investing more dollars in innovation or current infrastructure improvements?