Sunday, March 15, 2009

Is This Proof...

that the subsidization of roads to sprawl are costing us a lot of money?
The Federal Highway Administration reported that motorists drove 108 billion fewer miles last year, a 3.6 percent drop from 2007 levels. While significant, this reduction — which has an impact on gasoline tax revenues — is far less severe than the reduction in travel experienced by toll roads across the country. The continued drop in toll road use on well regarded facilities like Orange County, California’s 91 Express Lanes brings into question the long-term sustainability of tolling as a form of revenue collection compared to the more modern gasoline excise tax.

3 comments:

crzwdjk said...

Of course toll revenue on the 91 express lanes is dropping: there's a free alternative right next to them, and as people are driving less, the free lanes are less congested, so there's less benefit from paying the toll. Which is why when you toll, you need to toll a bottleneck where there is no easy alternative.

Anonymous said...

A freeways biggest problem is that it is free.

Anonymous said...

"The Federal Highway Administration reported that motorists drove 108 billion fewer miles last year"

If we had to put a price on this driving, then US taxpayers saved $108 billion last year.