Paula F. Downey
President's Page: Transportation Funding
Our roadways are ailing and highway funding is running dry. AAA wants to hear your thoughts on how to address transportation funding needs going forward.
Taking the road less traveled may have been a real choice for poet Robert Frost nearly 100 years ago. Today the open road seems an illusion, and a few less-traveled (and better-maintained) roads could make, as Frost wrote, “all the difference.” A healthy infrastructure provides benefits to everyone by cutting commute times, reducing air pollution, and speeding up the delivery of goods and services.
But our roadways are ailing. In March, the Road Information Program reported that poorly maintained roads cost each driver in the Bay Area about $750 a year in extra maintenance, accelerated depreciation, and lowered fuel efficiency—almost twice the national average of $413 for urban motorists.
About 45 percent of the country’s road construction is paid for by the federal Highway Trust Fund, which draws most of its revenues from an 18.4-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline. Though the fund boasted a $20 billion surplus as recently as 2001, spending has outpaced incoming revenue since then and reserves are expected to run dry by mid-2009.
In the past, Congress has overcome revenue shortfalls by increasing the fuel tax rate, which was last raised in 1993. But many lawmakers are reluctant to risk the political fallout likely to come from asking voters to pay more for gas. Some also feel that as cars become more fuel-efficient and automakers produce more vehicles powered by alternative fuels, the gas tax will become obsolete.
In light of those concerns, Congress created two commissions to evaluate the nation’s transportation needs—and ways to pay for them.
Photography by Anne Hamersky
This article was first published in May 2008. Some facts may have aged gracelessly. Please call ahead to verify information.
