Recommendation

Congress should move toward establishing a national road user charge system.

Details

Instead of gas taxes or general fund revenues, road user charges are the most viable and sustainable long-term “user pay” option for the federal government to raise adequate and appropriate revenues to provide the federal share of funding for the nation’s surface transportation system. Both real-world examples and academic research demonstrate that such a system has the capacity not only to raise needed revenues but also to provide additional benefits, including more efficient use of transportation infrastructure and reduced environmental and other social costs. As such, Congress should accelerate the transition to a road user charge system, in part by charging the Department of Transportation with the development of technical standards and regulations for the operation of such a system.

Keep reading:

▪ Robert D. Atkinson, “A Policymaker’s Guide to Road User Charges” (ITIF, April 2019), https://itif.org/publications/2019/04/22/policymakers-guide-road-user-charges/.