Illinois contractors and unions are lobbying hard for a gas tax increase, claiming that highway infrastructure is crumbling and killing people. Last week, the Antiplanner told Illinois that its highway infrastructure is actually doing fine, but the infrastructure that was in trouble was rail transit. Increasing gas taxes to repair Chicago transit would unfairly take money from low-income downstate auto commuters to subsidize higher-income Chicago transit commuters.
The day after I returned from Chicago, two local commuters woke up to discover a bridge had shed some concrete that crushed their cars in the night. Does that mean the unions were right about crumbling highway infrastructure?
No, the concrete, it turns out, came from a Chicago Transit Authority Red Line elevated line. CTA didn’t even seem too concerned about it, finding no evidence of “larger deterioration issues.” However, a spokesperson said, “out of an abundance of caution crews are performing a complete inspection of the area.”
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Personally, I’d think that pieces of concrete big enough to crush a car falling from a structure would be enough evidence of “larger deterioration issues.” How abundant was the caution that allowed people to park their cars where such concrete could fall?
CTA hasn’t said whether it will replace the crushed automobiles. Instead, it wants billions of dollars to extend the Red Line. Rather than extending it, it should tear it down and replace it with bus-rapid transit.
Illinois isn’t all that bad. Illinois diverts “only” 29 percent of its highway revenue. New York, Maryland and Connecticut divert 36, 54 and 59, respectively. Nationwide, 13 percent of all STATE highway revenue and 12.5 percent of all federal gas and diesel tax revenue is diverted to transit. The more you drive, the more you support the transit you don’t use.
Now they want to raise the gas tax because roads are falling apart! Time for a red vest revolution?
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2016/pdf/df.pdf
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2016/pdf/fe9.pdf
I don’t care if they raise the gax tax here in Maryland what matters is keeping the money in house for highway upkeep.
Yes it’s true that gas taxes in California and other states are particularly high, it’s worth noting Cali has more highways and major roads than most other states too. All in all the US pays fairly little in gas taxes because gas is relatively cheap compared to other places. US the average price as of April 22nd was $2.50 in Canada it’s over 4 bucks.
Gas tax rates (US dollar) per US gallon world wide equivalent
Australia 1.40
Austria 2.46
Canada 1.25
Denmark 2.95
France 3.07
Germany 3.29
Japan 2.16
Korea 2.69
UK 3.44
US 0.53 average (state variable, federal 18.6 cents)
In most of those countries above despite their taxes being anywhere from four, five, over SIX times higher per gallon! Driving is still their majority mode of transportation. Difference is they drive more fuel efficient cars. A lot of these countries also have Impeccably well maintained highways. The fact is, motor fuel taxes haven’t deterred driving as the transit advocates thought. In 2015 the US consumed 140 billion gallons of gasoline, at an average tax of 53 cents that’s 74.2 Billion in gasoline revenue. We’d accomplish a 1.4 billion raise in revenue average for every penny raise in tax. I’m not saying that gas should be as expensive as Europe or Asia, but in the 1980’s Reagan conceded with a democratic congress, rather than perpetuate a standoff, he and Congress agreed that a slight tax increase would benefit in the long run by raising badly needed revenue for the massive infrastructure deficit we suffered nationwide. Rather than spend ALL the money or expand highways, the states with revenue surpluses should deposit the cash in an infrastructure bank as a rainy day fund for sour economy.
I wonder what constitutes a “larger deterioration issue” than a piece of their infrastructure breaking off and falling on a parked vehicle underneath? I guess we’ll just have to wait to find out.
“Difference is they drive more fuel efficient cars.”
Many of the small fuel-efficient cars they drive in Europe are not legal in the US. By the time our regulators are done with changing them to meet US “standards”, they weigh hundreds of pounds more and are no longer fuel efficient.
How much of a maintenance backlog does CTA have?