More than half of Americans think their area’s transportation
system is only fair or poor. Nearly half think congestion has
gotten worse over the past five years, and 54% think it will get
worse in the coming five years. But 77% oppose increasing the
federal gas tax, apparently not trusting Congress to spend the
proceeds on improving their travels – 65% say federal
transportation money is spent ineffectively. Instead, Americans
favor using tolls for new capacity, and 59% say they would use new
toll roads or toll lanes if it meant significant time savings.

These are some of the highlights of the
latest Reason-Rupe public opinion survey (.pdf) of 1,200
adults via landlines and cell phones. 

Public disaffection with federal transportation efforts goes
beyond opposition to gas tax increases. Although the federal
government has thus far spent $8 billion to fund high-speed rail,
only 34% think government should do this, while 55% think
high-speed rail should be limited to routes where passengers would
pay fares large enough to pay for the service. In addition, while
Congress devotes 20% of Highway Trust Fund spending to mass
transit, 48% of Americans think that transit should receive no more
of transportation funding than its share in travel (which in most
places would be less than 5%). And by a margin of 62% to 30%
Americans favor robust highway funding, given that most people
travel mostly by car, as opposed to the idea that transportation
funding should focus on getting people out of their cars by
disproportionately funding transit and other non-driving
alternatives.

As for alternatives to an expanded federal role, there is
considerable support for tolling and public-private partnerships.
Some 58% would rather see new highway capacity paid for by tolls
than by increased gas taxes (28%). And 57% support converting
existing HOV lanes into HOT lanes. A comparable 55% support using
public-private partnerships to build critical infrastructure.

These views are considerably at odds with what many
transportation planners and media pundits think about
transportation policy and hopefully will prompt some serious debate
about how to improve the nation’s infrastructure by embracing and
restoring the users-pay principle to highways and
infrastructure.

For more, go to Reason’s
transportation research and commentary.