DALLAS -- Most Americans would support replacing the gasoline tax with a mileage-based road use fee to pay for transportation projects, according to a nationwide poll commissioned by infrastructure solutions firm HTNB.
The user fee concept was favored by 65% of those polled in the recent Transportation Mobility 2016 survey, with 69% saying toll lanes should be part of the funding mix.
The survey by Kelton Global between March 14 and March 22 found that 46% of the 1,000 adults polled said they would likely support a road user fee and 19% were extremely likely to do so.
The results show a significant increase in support for a mileage-based fee from a 2014 poll that found motorists split on the road user proposal, with only 50% favoring it, said Mathew Click, HTNB's vice president for price managed lanes.
The favorable shift in support for some form of road user fee shows that Americans are beginning to realize that new ways are needed to fund construction and maintenance of surface transportation infrastructure, Click said.
"More and more people realize that road-usage fee options, such as vehicle miles traveled (VMT) or price managed lanes, are needed to fill the gaps resulting from the declining ability of federal gas taxes to provide needed funds," Click said. "Yet, the use of traditional approaches, such as federal gas taxes, sales and property taxes, continue to be favored by certain segments of the population."
The federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon brings in $15 billion per year less than federal transportation expenditures, mostly due to increases in automobile fuel efficiency. The recently enacted Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act will require $70 billion of general fund transfers into the Highway Trust Fund to support the $305 billion of federal highway and transit funding over five years.
The average fuel economy of automobiles sold in the U.S. in 2015 was 24.7 miles per gallon, up from 19 miles per gallon in 2005 and 13 miles per gallon in 1975, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The HTNB survey found that 55% of the respondents believe the funding needed to maintain and build the nation's infrastructure of local roads bridges and tunnels over the next 10 years should come from increased taxes while 45% favored user fees over the near term. Higher state and local gasoline taxes were favored by 24% while 20% supported increases in local transportation-dedicated sales taxes.
A road user fee dedicated to interstate highway maintenance was backed by 44% of those surveyed, while 28% favor an increase in the federal gasoline tax to generate additional revenues.
Significant generational differences on how to fund transportation infrastructure are beginning to emerge, Click said, with only 43% of baby boomers (age 50 to 68) favoring a higher federal gasoline tax while 68% of the millennial generation (18 to 34) saying they would rather pay a higher fuel tax than a mileage-based user fee.
Only 5% of older Americans want to fund transportation projects with higher property taxes, an approach favored by 17% of the younger generations.
"The differences among younger Americans from their older counterparts in how to fund infrastructure is likely a reflection of their increased reliance on public transit over private automobiles, and a lower rate of home ownership than older Americans," Click said.
