Road Funding

Freeway Construction

Analysis of U.S. DOT BUILD Grants Raises Critical Issues About Spending Priorities

Transportation for America is crunching the numbers on how the Trump administration has shifted transportation funding programs since it took over the TIGER grant program and made it into the BUILD grant program.

April 30, 2019 - Transportation for America

Portland, Oregon

Portland, Ore. Voters Will Be Asked to Reauthorize Gas Tax in May 2020

Originally approved by 52 percent of voters in May 2016, the 4-year, 10 cents per gallon city gas tax has outperformed revenue projections. Funds are split between road maintenance and bike and pedestrian projects.

March 30, 2019 - The Oregonian

Vermont SUV

New Hampshire Bills Target Vehicles That Don't Guzzle Enough Fuel

Two bills target hybrid and electric vehicles and even fuel efficient vehicles with new registration fees to increase road funding, as nine states did last year. However, many of those states also hiked gas taxes in the same legislation.

January 5, 2018 - New Hampshire Public Radio

Bay Bridge Toll

Road Funding By Taxes, Tolls, and Fees, Broken Down by State

The Tax Foundation endeavors to provide a simple explanation of road funding.

July 16, 2017 - Tax Foundation

Idaho Governor Stands Against Using General Fund Money for Highway Expansion

Writing that a $320 million transportation finance bill "violates my user-pay, pay-as-you-go philosophy toward transportation funding," Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter explained why he allowed the bill to become law without his signature.

April 17, 2017 - Idaho Mountain Express

Study: Local Roads in California 'At Risk' Due to Lack of Funding

A coalition of local governmental agencies and advocates released their 2016 report on the condition of local streets and roads in California, and they found dire underinvestment. The legislature has yet to convene a special session on funding.

October 27, 2016 - Capitol Weekly

Hummer and Prius

How Much More Damage to Roads is Caused by a Hummer Than a Prius?

A Hummer weighs 2.6 times more than a Prius C, so it must contribute that much more to road wear, right? Actually, that's wrong, not even close. To understand the main cause of road wear, one must look at heavy, not light trucks.

June 5, 2015 - OReGO Communications

Why Raise Gas Taxes When Surplus General Funds are Available to Fix Roads?

In Michigan, after voters defeated a sales tax hike that would have triggered a gas tax hike, General Fund revenues are dedicated to roads. South Carolina legislators, eying a gas tax hike, may direct surplus General Fund revenues to roads instead.

May 25, 2015 - The Detroit News

Michigan's Sweeping Road Funding Amendment Loses in a Landslide

Proposition 1 would have enacted broad reforms in road funding policies and programs in Michigan. Despite Governor Rick Snyder and the State Legislature's efforts, however, voters soundly defeated the measure in a statewide election this week.

May 6, 2015 - Detroit Free Press

Car Graveyard

New Report Finds Drivers Pay Less Than Half the Cost of Roads

The new report, "Who Pays for Roads? How the 'Users Pays' Myth Gets in the Way of Solutions to America’s Transportation Problems" exposes the widening gap between how Americans think we pay for roadways—through user fees—and how we actually do.

May 6, 2015 - U.S. Pirg

$417 Million To Fund Highway Projects

Last week, the Federal Highway Administration awarded discretionary highway grants in what could be among the last expenditures before the Sept. 30 expiration of the gas tax. Included were $8m for Value Pricing Pilot Program projects in 5 states.

August 22, 2011 - FHWA Press Release

A Road Tax on Electric Cars

WA state is considering the nation's first fee on electric cars to cover road wear since they pay no gas tax, the primary funding mechanism for funding road maintenance and construction. However, critics point out that the fee is flat, not variable.

April 25, 2011 - AOL News

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.

Senior Planner

City of Thousand Oaks

Community Development Director

City of Wisconsin Rapids

Professor of Urban Planning

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

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