Moving Georgia Ahead: What’s Coming Down the Pike

GEORGIA PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION EVENT REMINDER
January 15, 2013
Contact Benita Dodd at 404-256-4050 or

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

Atlanta – Have you registered yet? With just one week left until the registration deadline, seats are filling fast for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s first Leadership Breakfast of 2013! The Reason Foundation’s Robert W. Poole will keynote, “Moving Georgia Ahead: What’s Coming Down the Pike,” at Cobb County’s Georgian Club. at 8 a.m. on Thursday, January 24.

Just one week after the national Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting, Poole, co-founder of the Reason Foundation, will provide an update on the outlook for transportation policy, funding and policy amid fiscal constraints and partisan politics, and describe Georgia’s options for mobility and congestion relief.

Poole, a senior fellow at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, is director of transportation policy and Searle Freedom Trust Transportation Fellow at Reason Foundation, which he co-founded. Poole, a MIT-trained engineer, has advised the Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton  andthe George W. Bush administrations. 

In the field of surface transportation, Poole has advised the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, the White House Office of Policy Development, National Economic Council, Government Accountability Office and state DOTs in numerous states. His 1988 policy paper proposing privately financed toll lanes to relieve congestion directly inspired California’s landmark private tollway law (AB 680), which authorized four pilot toll projects including the successful 91 Express Lanes in Orange County. More than 20 other states and the federal government have since enacted similar public-private partnership legislation. In 1993, Poole oversaw a study that coined the term HOT (high-occupancy toll) Lanes, a term which has become widely accepted since. 

From 2003 to 2005, he was a member of the Transportation Research Board’s special committee on the long-term viability of the fuel tax for highway finance. In 2008 he served as a member of the Texas Study Committee on Private Participation in Toll Roads, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry. In 2009, he was a member of an Expert Review Panel for Washington State DOT, advising on a $1.5 billion toll mega-project. In 2010, he was a member of the transportation transition team for Florida’s Governor-elect Rick Scott. He is a member of two TRB standing committees: Congestion Pricing and Managed Lanes.

Poole is a member of the Government Accountability Office’s National Aviation Studies Advisory Panel and he has testified before the House and Senate’s aviation subcommittees on numerous occasions. Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Poole consulted the White House Domestic Policy Council and the leadership of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. He has also advised the Federal Aviation Administration, Office of the Secretary of Transportation, White House Office of Policy Development, National Performance Review, National Economic Council and the National Civil Aviation Review Commission on aviation issues. He is a member of the Critical Infrastructure Council of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation and of the Air Traffic Control Association.

Poole was among the first to propose the commercialization of the U.S. air traffic control system, and his work in this field has helped shape proposals for a U.S. air traffic control corporation. A version of his corporation concept was implemented in Canada in 1996 and was more recently endorsed by several former top FAA administrators. He has written hundreds of articles, papers, and policy studies on privatization and transportation issues and he writes a monthly column on transportation issues for Public Works Financing.

Poole earned his B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and did graduate work in operations research at New York University.

Media interested in attending must contact Benita Dodd at  or 404-256-4050. (Difficulty registering? Contact Benita Dodd.)

Who: Robert W. Poole
What: “Moving Georgia Ahead: What’s Coming Down the Pike,” a Leadership Breakfast
When: 8 a.m., Thursday, January 24, 2013
Where: The Georgian Club, 100 Galleria Parkway, Suite 1700, Atlanta, GA 30339
Directions: http://tinyurl.com/4cf9yy2 

About the Georgia Public Policy Foundation: Established in 1991, the Foundation is an independent, state-focused think tank that proposes practical, market-oriented approaches to public policy to improve the lives of Georgians. The Foundation’s regular events include Leadership Breakfasts and Policy Briefing Luncheons. Weekly publications are the Friday Facts and Friday Idea commentaries. Visit our Web site at georgiapolicy.org. Join The Forum at forum.georgiapolicy.org. Like the Foundation’s Facebook page at facebook.com/GeorgiaPolicy and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/gppf.