North Carolina State Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon formed a commission last month tasked with developing recommendations for how to modernize the state’s transportation investment strategy.
The N.C. Future Investment Resources for Sustainable Transportation Commission will develop ways to meet financial investment needs by researching the impact that changing demographics and behavior patterns along with emerging technologies will have on the state’s transportation system.
Research includes analyzing national and international trends.
“The transportation industry is on the cusp of fundamental changes that will forever change our relationship to moving goods and people,” Trogdon said. “The work the NCFIRST Commission will do will be critical for the economic vitality of North Carolina.”
The commission will work for approximately 18 months before making its recommendations to the transportation secretary. Recommendations will have the goal of building and maintaining the state’s competitiveness and economic vitality.
Fourteen people comprise the commission. Members have backgrounds in business, finance and public policy.
Members include Julie Eiselt, Charlotte’s mayor pro tem; Michael Walden, professor at North Carolina State
University; William G. Lapsley, a retired
civil engineer; and Patrick
Woodie, president of the North
Carolina Rural Center.
The commission’s first meeting will be next month in Raleigh.