During a busy Infrastructure Week, the Eno Center for Transportation released the results of two long-term research projects.

Freight Funding. We will have much more on this topic next week, but on Thursday, May 19, the Eno Center released a new policy paper entitled Delivering the Goods: Recommendations for Funding a Federal Freight Program. The paper is a product of the discussions held by the Eno Freight Working Group, co-chaired by former New Jersey Governor Jim Florio and former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman.

The Working Group brought together numerous freight industry stakeholders, experts and thought leaders to develop consensus around a specific recommendation for a funding source for a multimodal freight investment program at the federal level. The group also interviewed, researched, and met with other industry experts to help inform and shape the final recommendations.

(You can read the paper now, or wait for our article next week to break it down for you.)

Aviation Insights. On May 20, the Eno Center released its newest project – Eno Aviation Insights. This is an interactive data visualization webpage that paints a picture of the modern airline industry since deregulation in 1979.

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 changed the aviation industry drastically. Prior to deregulation, the federal government regulated fares, limited routes, and restricted new airline entrants. Deregulation has allowed the aviation industry to almost entirely transform itself. Data from the past thirty years seems to suggest that it has benefited passengers and the U.S. economy (at least in ways that can be quantified), and Eno’s new webpage aims to show (graphically) where the industry has come from and where its headed from an independent and objective perspective.

The new webpage is broken down into 5 categories:

• Safety
• Passengers
• Cost of Travel
• Profitability
• Competition/Service

Eno staff used government and industry data for this project and aimed to present their analysis in an accessible and impartial manner.

Over the next several months, Eno will update and add on to this webpage with more detailed data that can help analyze how the airline industry is performing for consumers, airlines, employees, and the overall economy.

To view the Eno Aviation Insights webpage, click here.