"kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > The US tax on gasoline is so low, that most DOT's operate in the red. In > fact, in Ohio there have been a number of needed road projects postponed > indefinitely due to lack of funds. If the DOT needs money, they have to > borrow it. That means future earned revenue now must be used to pay back > interest on past debts and can't be used for needed road projects.
While this is not the best place to debate transportation politics (I suggest http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-policy/ ), US fuel taxes are quite high enough. The problem is that those taxes keep getting "hijacked" away from road-building and maintenance to other uses, especially public-transit projects which are effectively a complete waste since they don't even carry one tenth the passenger-km you could transport by spending the same money to add or widen urban freeways, as we badly need. This is one area where the US does things better than Europe, though we've certainly started to turn in the same, wrong, direction Europe's going.
