Transportation Reform High-speed Rail My primary concern with the current transportation infrastructure in the State of Michigan is the lack of any legitimate form of mass transportation which would allow for any significant time or monetary cost advantage. I recognize this is a problem on both the intrastate & interstate levels contributing to high trade barriers for those doing business in Michigan. In order to propel economic prosperity to an entirely new level and maintain sustained growth we need to first invest into an interstate high-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure. The most sensible approach is to convert Detroit into an economic hub by connecting Detroit to both Chicago and Toronto as depicted in the photo below. The indirect economic benefits alone from implementing a high-speed rail system in Michigan are more than enough to justify its cost. Assuming we allowed passengers to ride free of charge, I estimate that within five to ten years of operation, increased tax revenue resulting from lowered trade barriers would pay for the system many times over. To be clear, I will not increase taxes for high-speed rail. I plan to fund high-speed rail in Michigan by reducing the cost of government via increasing efficiency through technology. To put it in perspective, increasing efficiency in Michigan government by a mere 5 percent would be enough to fund the entire project, and I plan to cut costs by over 40 percent. Further, since the project would be directly benefiting both Chicago and Toronto, the costs would likely be split between Michigan, Chicago, Toronto, and both the US and Canadian Federal governments. In 2003, Japan set the record for the fastest Maglev train at 361 mph. In 2010, Michigan can do better. During World War II, practically overnight, our automobile industry transformed into what President Franklin Roosevelt referred to as "The Arsenal of Democracy". The automobile factories manufactured everything from tanks to B-24 Bombers (Side Note: Working at record speeds, a B-24 Bomber was produced by the Detroit assembly lines every 53 minutes). With that in mind, I challenge our automobile manufacturers to design and create the most sophisticated high speed rail system the world has ever seen. Ideally I would like to see this new interstate high-speed rail system seamlessly integrated with our existing and future intrastate transportation networks. At minimum though, I require an elevated high speed train which operates at a minimum average speed of 400 mph. Although my personal design leverages an inverted track to reduce overall weight and points of failure, for the sake of cost effectiveness, this feature is not a requirement. Roads The roads in Michigan are some of the worst in the entire country. To make matters worse, in the winter time we are at the mercy of weather and when we are not snowed in, we face the threat of black ice. Treacherous roads result in many unnecessary deaths and millions in financial loss every year. Additionally, enormous time and monetary costs of constructing our roads is a major drain on the budget. I propose a fully automated facility which produces prefabricated roads out of recycled materials and houses both power and data lines. Additionally, since the 2.45GHz frequency emitted by a magnetron targets primarily water, fat, and sugar molecules it would be the ideal technology for automatically melting the snow off our roads. Simplifying the process not only allows for significant cost savings, but also makes it possible to lay more roadways in a fraction of the time. I would like to invest in research and development on this project or at the very least open road development to private competition. Although some proposals, such as solar roadways (solarroadways.com), suggest we incorporate solar panels into our roads as well, it will be at least three to five years until breakthroughs in photovoltaics reduce the price per watt into economically acceptable ranges. We currently spend 3.3 billion dollars a year on transportation with road construction projects receiving 75% of transportation funds. I estimate a minimum 30% direct savings per year by leveraging prefabricated roads. When including the benefits of increased road lifespan the long-term cost of our transportation infrastructure plummets.