Road Use Imposes Costs On Others

"About 25 percent of the nation's highways, which carry about 85 percent of all road traffic, are paid for in part by the federal government. Federal spending on highways comes primarily from taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, but those and other taxes paid by highway users do not yield enough revenue to support current or proposed federal spending on highways.

Although raising fuel taxes would increase revenue, those taxes alone cannot provide a strong incentive for highway users to consider all of the costs their road use imposes on others. This Congressional Budget Office –CBO- study, prepared at the request of the Senate Budget Committee, examines broad alternatives for federal funding of highways, focusing on fuel taxes and on other taxes that could be assessed on the basis of the number of miles that vehicles travel."

For added information regarding this report go to http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12101