New Study Highlights How to Make Infrastructure Relevant Again

Brodeur Partners, a global strategic communications firm, today announced the results of a new study, “Making Infrastructure Relevant Again” which looks at voters’ sense of urgency toward the nation’s aging infrastructure. Among other things, the study revealed that voters give high marks to the current state of the nation’s infrastructure, yet they acknowledge improvements to health, safety and security weigh more heavily than job creation.

“Pundits may agree that improving our nation’s infrastructure would be a perfect way for Washington to display rare bipartisanship and create jobs, but there is a huge gap between the views of experts and voters on the seriousness of the infrastructure problem,” said Jerry Johnson, a partner at Brodeur Partners and author of the study. “One reason may be a lack of public awareness of how bad the state of our infrastructure really is and the threat that may pose to our safety and security.”

The study was based on a survey of 1,080 Americans who said they voted in the 2016 election.

The study suggests five recommendations for those advocating efforts to address the nation’s infrastructure needs:

1.    Better Educate the Public

American voters may not yet fathom the true degree of infrastructure decay. They generously give A and B grades to infrastructure systems to which licensed engineers give D’s. To increase awareness of dire infrastructure conditions, policy makers need to better spotlight failing dams, bridges, water systems, etc., and detail the risk to communities.

2.    Rethink Messaging

While the media focuses primarily on productivity and job creation as the main benefits of infrastructure improvement, there is an underplayed message in the mainstream discourse: public health and safety. Despite the inflated grades they awarded to infrastructure systems, respondents ranked health, safety and security over job creation (31 to 29 percent) as the top potential benefit of infrastructure spending.

3.    Align Priorities

Since infrastructure is a broad category, Brodeur investigated which infrastructure priorities American voters favored most. Respondents prioritized water, energy and transportation systems (roads and bridges) over mass transit, dams/flood control, air transportation and passenger rail (e.g., Amtrak).

4.     Organize Constituencies

While voters rated some parts of infrastructure more important than others, the study also identified voting blocs that could form the basis for organizing greater awareness and public support.

5.    Broaden Funding and Oversight

On the issue of funding, voters were divided on how to pay for infrastructure needs. A plurality (42 percent) of respondents leaned toward spending cuts, 27 percent said that infrastructure spending should be fully funded through tax increases while 31 percent said it should be a combination of the two.  The study also explored which parts of government voters most trust to administer infrastructure spending.