Making it Easier to Build
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The problem: Many of the challenges we face in our daily lives—high housing costs, limited transit options, and growing utility bills—stem from outdated infrastructure. Known solutions to these problems exist, but procedural hurdles and uncertainty slow practical development.
Unlocking Potential: RAND’s work helps decisionmakers strategically navigate uncertainty by providing impartial analyses and actionable recommendations to make infrastructure-based solutions both easier and more effective.
- Housing construction: Streamlining permitting processes, reforming zoning laws to allow higher density, and incentivizing cost-saving construction methods can make multifamily housing more affordable. RAND has also examined the effect of initiatives such as the Measure ULA transfer tax and project labor agreements on housing production.
- Energy efficiency in rentals: Targeted efficiency upgrades can reduce operating costs and extend the lifespan of affordable rental housing. RAND also investigated how landlords might comply with a cooling ordinance that establishes a maximum indoor temperature for Los Angeles County single-family rentals.
- The future of transportation: The ability to move people and goods quickly and safely is central to local, regional, and global economic activity. RAND has laid out what it would take to achieve aspirational visions for future transportation systems: roadways with zero fatalities, airports that serve as a gateway to frictionless multimodal transit, and a commercial spaceflight industry where human transportation via spaceflight is routine.
- Navigating nuance in policy and regulation: Improving the nation’s infrastructure requires a detailed understanding of the policies, regulations, and demographic trends that shape how and why we build infrastructure. We have provided Congress with guidance on how to reform federal airport funding mechanisms, advised California hospitals on the cost implications of reforms to seismic upgrade requirements, and described how shifting generational preferences change how we think about transportation planning.