Many Americans believe that drivers pay the full cost of the roads they use through gas taxes and other user fees. That has never been true, and it is less true now than at any other point in modern times.
The time has come for policy-makers to recognize something that has been true for years, but is especially true today: we all pay for America’s roads. Short-term funding patches—even modest increases in the gas tax—won’t change that. Nor will they be enough to enable America to achieve a 21st century transportation system. Doing so will require bold rethinking of how we raise transportation money and how we spend it in the years to come.