Filed under: Legislation and Policy

One fact seems indisputable: Americans have come to hate taxes and any suggestion by a politician to raise them is tantamount to political suicide. The problem is that public infrastructure requires funding - and lots of it. Critics of this disparity would argue that a lack of political will to raise fuel taxes has left roads, bridges and tunnels across America crumbling in recent decades.

A new survey conducted by HNTB Corporation suggests that Americans would prefer to pay tolls or let their roads crumble rather than pay higher fuel taxes. While this may well be a valid survey, it's important to note that HNTB is an infrastructure firm that supplies toll collecting equipment, among other things.

In any case, the study's findings note that "when given a choice between new roads funded by an increased gas tax, by new tolls or no new roads at all, Americans prefer tolls (41 percent) or no new roads at all (41 percent) over increased gas taxes (18 percent)." Further, "A strong majority of Americans (84 percent) feel tolls should be considered project-by-project or as a primary source of transportation revenue. Only a small minority (16 percent) say tolls should never be used."

In the old days, toll booths were a pain because every car had to stop and pay. The advent of affordable radio frequency transponder systems like EZ-Pass now allows commuters to drive toll roads and pay automatically without stopping - or even thinking about how much money using such systems costs them. Of course, this type of toll collecting raises other issues including invasion of privacy concerns, since the operators know where specific cars are at certain points in time. There's also the possibility of account hacking or errors where someone could end up charging their driving to other accounts.

What do you think about tolls? Check out the full press release after the jump for more of the study's findings, then drop your fellow readers a line in Comments.

[Source: HNTB Corporation | Image: Wikimedia Commons]

Continue reading Study: Americans prefer tolls over fuel taxes... how about you?

Study: Americans prefer tolls over fuel taxes... how about you? originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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