After the Motor Fuel Tax Reshaping Transportation Financing: Congress Should Seize the Opportunity to Shift to a System of Direct User Fees to Support Transportation Activities (Financing TRANSPORTATION‪)‬

Congress will soon begin considering a new transportation bill that is expected to carry a price tag of $500 billion to $600 billion to support a huge number of projects nationwide. Public debate over the bill is certain to be intense, with earmarks and "bridges to nowhere" being prominently mentioned. But what could become lost in the din is that Congress may well take an important first step in changing the very nature of how the nation raises funds to support its roads and other components of the transit system. Or Congress may lose its courage. If so, the nation will miss a critical opportunity to gain hundreds of billions of dollars in needed revenue for transportation, to reduce traffic congestion, and to price travel more fairly than has been the case for a century. At issue is whether Congress will continue to rely on the federal motor fuel tax and other indirect user fees as the primary source of revenue for transportation projects, or whether it will begin a shift to more direct user fees. Many observers expect that Congress will step up to the job, but it is far from a done deal. If Congress does act, it will begin what is likely to be a decades-long transition to some form of direct charging on the basis of miles driven.