Big Surprise: Highways Don't Pay For Themselves
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.10.08
Whenever we write about the need for more money for transit, trains and bike routes, we get lots of comments about how drivers pay through the nose in gas taxes to pay for the roads they drive on, while transit and train are highly subsidized and cyclists? "when you start paying taxes on the roads like we do then you can take up space on them."
In fact, a new Texas study looked at the cost of building and maintaining roads, and determined that for roads without tolls, the gas tax would have to be $ 2.22 per gallon, almost ten times what it is now in the States.
cool graph from foreignpolicy.com comparing gas taxes to consumption
Planetizen concludes: "This study provides support for transportation reform advocates nationwide whether they be pushing congestion pricing locally or AMTRAK nationally. If no transportation project, be it highway, transit or something else, can be said to "pay for itself;" then the arguments of car culture advocates and libertarians who argue against alternative transportation on the basis that it is only viable because of a government subsidy loses what little credibility it has left." ::Planetizen
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Even Cheney Thinks Gas Tax Holiday is a Bad Idea
The TH Interview: Ray Anderson—The Man with a Spear in his Chest (Part Two)
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Texas is full of roads and not of people, it's not a wholly accurate study for more compact states. (I'm originally from Texas).
But yes, the gas tax only helps pay a little, but it's never been a good method, especially now with biofuel, hybrids, etc... It was always a pain to pay gas tax for private vehicles too, that which is on property and never driven on public roads(no lic plate, no stickers, no insurance, never on public lands) be they car or smaller vehicle. Gasoline lawnmowers also paying for road maintenance always seemed like a rip. However, only in Texas and perhaps Arizona do I expect it to be 2.22 per gallon I expect it would be much lower in other states.
In Minnesota during 2006, we saw property taxes take over as the main source of state road funding:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/pressreleasels85.asp?district=29B&pressid=2998&party=1
I'm sure these are very complicated figures, but the point is that gas and vehicle taxes do not build and maintain our roads.
The real truth, our taxes more than pay for the roads.
However, our government's misappropriation and mismangement, nullifies the effect of those monies.
For example, I live in Pennsylvania where route 30 is being worked on. It is taking several months to essentially "replace the old guard rails with new ones". Why?
Because most days you will drive by and see 1-2 people working and a dozen standing, looking dumb, scratching their chins. But also greatly increasing the cost of the work.
It's disgusting. But truth be told, the DOT of most states is really a welfare program rather than a construction program.
What about raising license plate fees based on MPG?
http://www.olybikes.com/resources/gastax.html
from the site/study
How We Pay for Roads
An Olympia, Washington Case Study
From the Preliminary 1999 Transportation Budget 1
Many people believe that cyclists do not pay for roads and therefore have no right to use them. The fact is that cyclists have both a legal and fiscal right to the road. RCW 46.61.755 specifically permits cyclists to use roads in Washington. Cyclists also pay for roads as well. The table below illustrates the sources of funding for the capital projects and operations for the City of Olympia Draft 1999 Transportation Budget. The table shows that gas tax provides a minority of the funds for local roads. Therefore, even when cyclists are not drivers (and many if not most are), they still pay for the roads they cycle on. Furthermore, bicycles cause very little if any wear and tear on roads, compared to automobiles. Thus, cyclists may actually be disproportionately paying for the roads they use.
the link has the table referred to in the text and concludes that for the Olympia, Wa area 34% of road costs are covered by the gas tax. Anybody who says other wise can suck it. Although, drivers in this area tend to be much more bike concious then other areas I have ridden in.
Here's another conclusion that can be drawn from the foreignpolicy.com chart (as opposed to the Texas study, though it's related): people who live in large countries with relatively low population densities drive a lot more than people who live in small, densely-populated countries (though I'll admit that Japan bucks the trend a little bit).
That these same large countries also have the lowest gas taxes may not have as much to do with consumption as some might like to think. Higher taxes would reduce driving, to be sure, but we also just plain have longer distances to cover.
Yeah, the inefficiency with which road work is done astonishes me. I don't know if it is a problem from the DOT, from the unions, or what, but everything seems to always go way over time and over budget.
Gas taxes also don't pay for the high levels of police man-hours and vehicle-miles spent to make sure that people are driving correctly. I reckon that costs a couple dollars, and similar expenses are much lower for, say, a rail line or a bike path.
Bill W said: "Higher taxes would reduce driving, to be sure, but we also just plain have longer distances to cover."
In the U.S., you wouldn't have to cover longer distances if your urban planning was designed around complete, compact communities instead of suburbs and highway-oriented sprawl. Since the fifties, American settlement was designed to be wasteful and inefficient to serve the interests of the auto manufacturers and oil companies. Now you are paying the price for that folly.
The good news is that there will be a lot of investment opportunities and economic activity to correct it.