Can interstate highways be tolled

One is the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program, enacted in TEA, which permits tolling on three specific roadway segments in three different states tied to reconstruction and rehabilitation. Congress did allow tolling of segments of the Interstate Highway System through this program when there is reconstruction or rehabilitation.

The program requires each of the three states to enter an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration. The other tolling pilot program for federal-aid highways , including Interstate highways, is the Value Pricing Pilot Program, initially called the Congestion Pricing Pilot Program and not limited to tolling.

The pilot authorized slots for up to 15 value pricing programs, which are allocated to state or local agencies, without limits on how many tolling projects can be installed. This program also requires an agreement with FHWA. Why is it now time for Congress to adopt such a clear and simple policy statement?

If there is a revenue stream that can be attached to a particular infrastructure, the project can attract private capital, as President Trump noted in his address to Congress, for some or all of a project. There are a number of public policy issues that must be addressed if there is a going to be a widespread proliferation of the use of P3s for highway projects.

Since the federal gas tax has not been increased in over 25 years, it seems farfetched to think that Congress will increase the gas tax to the level necessary to make up for the revenue deficiency. Congress cannot agree to even index the gas tax to inflation, much less raise the gas tax. The remaining option to address the fiscal shortfall of the HTF would be to reduce the size of the highway program, effectively exacerbating the existing deferred maintenance on the system, and reducing economic productivity, hardly a desirable outcome.

Simply put, it is no longer possible to build and maintain our federal-aid highway system, including the Interstate Highway System, exclusively from the revenues derived from federal gas taxes, even when combined with state excise taxes. The states have accepted that the federal gas tax is unlikely to be increased and consequently, roughly 20 states have increased their state gas taxes in recent years, New Jersey and California quite substantially.

Tolling, combined with public-private partnerships, is the best option to reach the requisite level of investments in federal-aid highway infrastructure. Toll revenues can provide investors the necessary incentive to both provide the capital and assume the attendant risks that they would otherwise not assume while attaining better results for motorists and taxpayers. The major benefits of such a simple and clear statement of law are accountability, transparency and simplicity.

The big difference is that you only pay for a toll road when you choose to drive on it. With tax-supported roads, the taxes you pay on fuel, tires another equipment go to support roads throughout the state and in the case of federal taxes throughout the country that you may never use.

Tolling is Double Taxation Tolls are a fair and precise way to pay for transportation facilities because there is a clear and direct link between use of the facility and payment for that use. A toll is a user fee, not a tax. You only pay a toll when you choose to drive on a toll road for a higher level of convenience, reliability or safety. Toll customers, through the fuel they consume, also pay their share of local, state and federal taxes to fund non-toll roads that are open to all.

To meet their growing infrastructure needs, some states use both taxes and tolls to support their roads. This has benefits for motorists and those who haul freight.

When a state supports some of its roads through tolling, it means the taxes collected from all drivers are available for use on the non-tolled portions toll roads typically do not receive federal or state funding. In the old days, you paid a toll by stopping at a tollbooth and handing your money to a person or dropping your coins in a basket. Paying a toll meant stopping and waiting. Not anymore. Today, most toll roads, bridges and tunnels collect tolls electronically. Exceptions existed when the law went into effect for already established highways, such as the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Kansas Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, to avoid building parallel roads along major routes.

Since then, Congress has experimented with interstate tolls to rebuild a bridge or tunnel and with congestion tolling based on traffic and time of day. But removing the federal prohibition on tolling interstates would give states an option to adopt the funding stream, which could then be used to finance construction bonds.

About 3, miles of interstate highways are tolled out of a 46,mile network, according to Jones. Trump told a White House gathering of governors, county executives and mayors Monday that highways need major improvements because truckers damage their vehicles driving from Los Angeles to New York.

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