Public Sets Low Priority for Improving Transportation Infrastructure

The headline for the Pew Research Center’s new public poll is about the slip in concern over the nation’s deficit, but buried in the data is indication of the relative lack of concern of the public over the state of the nation’s bridges, roads, and public transportation systems.

The poll, which asks the public to rate their top priority for the president and Congress each year, places “Improving roads, bridges, and public transit” at 39 percent—18th on the list and tied with “Dealing with moral breakdown.” The concern over transportation infrastructure did jump 9 percent from 2013 to 2014. 

Another sector of infrastructure concern, “the nation’s energy problem,” ranked 13th at 45 percent. In another show of indifference, only 29 percent of respondents listed global warming among their priorities.

As for the historic trends of the public’s prioritization for infrastructure and global warming, Pew added questions on these subjects well into the 13-year tradition of the poll. The first results for infrastructure were posted in 2011, and the first results for global warming were released in 2007.