The images below are from Pew States (most of them), tweeted out as part of the #StuckinTraffic Twitter chat featuring U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx and House T&I Committee Chair Schuster.  Please note that most of the images have embedded URL links pointing to a webpage/report. So, feel free to click on the ones that pique your interest to learn more.

P.S: Pardon any shoddiness as you scroll down. This post is a quick hack/harvest of compelling charts from the #StuckINTraffic twitter feed to show the landscape of transportation funding issues and why it is important to get the reauthorization done ASAP.

Image Courtesy: Pew States – US transportation funding 101—& why fed, state investment is declining:

Image Courtesy – Pew States – DYK? Transportation infrastructure funding stems mainly from states:

Image Courtesy: Pew States – Fed, states facing funding challenges as gas tax revenues stall: h

Image Courtesy: Pew States – US #transportation fed grant funding dips 9% from ’08 to ’14:

Image Courtesy: Pew States – New Pew report spotlights surface DOT funding declines, overall down $27B in real terms since 2002

Image Courtesy: Pew States – 66% of fed transportation revenue stems from gas tax—why it matters:

Image Courtesy: Pew States – Fed Highway Trust Fund—major source of state, local funds—running low

Image courtesy; Pew States

Image courtesy: Wonkblog via @TransportDems – 1 in 4 US bridges is deficient. #StuckinTraffic

Image Courtesy: @BikeLeague – What role do transit, bike and pedestrian projects play in local economies?

This chart was included as part of a brilliant blog post by our friends at TransitLabs, which analyses the various issues surrounding the perennial shortfalls that dog the highway trust fund (aka Gas tax).  Highly recommend reading the entire blog titled “Why the Trust Fund Keeps Running Out” and explore the beautiful visualizations that accompany the story.

Image courtesy: Transitlabs

Below is a tweet that got me wondering.  Despite knowing the bad status of the Highway Trust Fund, why is congress so hesitant to raise the gas tax? I’m sure many of you are left asking the same question. Several years have gone by and many transportation reauthorizations bills have been enacted since the last time we raised the gas tax (in the early 1990s). But there is still no appetite to raise the gas tax, even by a few cents (and there seems to be any sense of urgency as well).  Hopefully this trend is reversed in the upcoming re-authorization in 2015.  BTW, am I alone in thinking that this picture below also subtly answers why we love our cars so much and like to build houses far from the urban core? What would happen to our current development model/real estate practices if gasoline was taxed like how it is done in Europe?

#roadfinancing #advocacy RT @ARTBA: Funding = road quality, just ask the EU #TMAW #FixtheHTF http://t.co/POeb0cEyq3 pic.twitter.com/HSHKuEFsbT

— CarolineVisserGRL (@GlobalRoadLinks) June 24, 2014

If you get a chance, visit this brilliant website (by ARTBA), Transportation Makes America Work, to see the impact of how this current gas tax situation is affecting the nation’s progress (you can even check out the impact on your particular state’s infrastructure). Also if you are interested, you can take action by contacting your local representative right on the website (and if you are a transportation nerd like me, you can always download the app on your phone and be ready to spill the facts in any discussion).

Image courtesy: tmaw.com –

Related articles

• Looming Highway Trust Fund Crisis: Impact on State Transportation Programs
• Do Low Oil Prices Justify Raising the Gas Tax?

A brilliant animated primer from the ASCE explains what’s at stake for the average American as the highway trust fund is fast nearing its end.. For the uninitiated,the Highway Trust Fund is the US federal funding for roads, bridges, and transit systems, and it is on course to become insolvent by August, jeopardizing America’s infrastructure and its economy. Unless our lawmakers get their act together with extreme urgency, we might be in for some serious trouble and may lose some of the hard fought economic gains quickly…Learn more:http://www.fixthetrustfund.org/

In case you are wondering why the highway trust fund is running out of money, take a peek at this article from Washington Post..

Related articles

• Roadscapes Wednesday: Fix The Trust Fund
• Highway Trust Fund Insolvency to Halt Mississippi Highway and Bridge Projects
• The US will start running out of money for roads in August. Here’s why.
• Highway Trust Fund is running on empty
• Highway Funding: Is 7 Percent a Crisis?
• Why the Highway Trust Fund is running out of money, in 5 graphs

via WUSA9

The latest transportation bill from Virginia legislature (HB2313), signed by Gov. Bob McDonnell has got a lot of Hybrid vehicle owners miffed. Under the new regulations, drivers of hybrid vehicles would have to pay a $100 annual fee.  So, the irate hybrid owners and other opponents of this measure have have started an online petition urging the governor to veto the fee now has more than 4,000 signatures (hoping to get to 10,000 by end of March) .  WUSA9’s Monika Samtani has done a nice report covering this issue. Check it out.

Critics are pointing out that :

This position is located in the Technical Services Branch of the Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division, Sterling, Virginia. The Civil Engineer (Transportation) serves as the Federal Lands Highway (FLH)-wide technical expert and authority for promoting, coordinating and implementing the various highway traffic operations, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and traffic monitoring activities. In this capacity, you will promote the development and implementation of innovative and state-of-the-art technologies, practices, and products to meet the FLH transportation related needs. The deadline for applications is January 21, 2011.

http://jobsearch.dot.gov/getjob.asp?JobID=95298113

(Source: Streetsblog & Wall Street Journal)

The Obama administration is working on a plan to fill the shortfall in the nation’s highway trust fund by August without adding to the federal deficit, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Congress yesterday.

The highway trust fund, which relies mostly on gas-tax revenue, will need up to $7 billion in additional money by the end of summer to ensure states continue receiving payments, LaHood told the transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. The fund also will need up to $10 billion in the 12 months after September to ensure its solvency, LaHood said.

“We believe very strongly that any trust fund fix must be paid for,” LaHood told members of the House Appropriations Committee’s transportation panel. “We also believe that any trust fund fix must be tied to reform of the current highway program to make it more performance-based and accountable, such as improving safety or improving the livability of our communities — two priorities for me.”

The administration’s quest to offset its trust fund fix, which will cost as much as $7 billion, could prove fruitless.  Rep. John Olver (D-MA), chairman of the panel that greeted LaHood today, put it simply when asked if the necessary spending cuts could be found. “That’d be very tough,” he said, noting that his own annual transportation spending is unlikely to become law before the highway trust fund runs out of cash.  Replenishing the trust fund with a cost offset, as LaHood suggests, requires a serious conversation about finding new long-term revenue sources for not just highways but all modes of transportation.

But he said the President Barack Obama administration has ruled out raising the gas tax to provide additional funding, saying an economic recession isn’t the time to make such a move.  “We are not going to raise the gasoline tax. I’ll just say that emphatically,” LaHood said.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: ENR.com & Wall Street Journal)

The Obama administration said as much as $17 billion in additional federal money is needed to maintain roads and bridges over the next two years, underscoring the challenges policy makers face as driving habits change.

Image Courtesy; Stateline.org via Gmanet.com

The recession and gas-price increases over the past two years have caused many consumers to drive less and switch to more fuel-efficient cars. The result has been a fall in revenue from taxes on gasoline and vehicle purchases, which are used to fund state and local transportation projects.

Officials from the  Obama administration and U.S. Dept. of Transportation have said that the trust fund will not have enough cash to cover commitments to states for highway projects, according to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and the panel’s top Republican, James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

According to administration and DOT officials, $5 billion to $7 billion will be needed by August to avert having to slow down Federal Highway Administration reimbursements to state DOTs, Boxer and Inhofe said on June 2. The lawmakers added that a further $8 billion to to $10 billion will be needed in fiscal year 2010 to maintain the highway program at its current level. Congress has set the 2009 federal highway program obligation limit at $40.7 billion.

Boxer and Inhofe discussed the trust fund’s problem at a June 2 committee hearing on the nomination of former Arizona DOT Director Victor Mendez to be the new head of the Federal Highway Administration.

Inhofe raised the possibility of tapping the interest on the Highway Trust Fund balance as one solution. That interest goes to the general Treasury, not the trust fund.

The administration has resisted calls to increase the 18.4-cent federal tax on a gallon of gas; the tax hasn’t been raised since 1993.

Last year, Congress transferred $8 billion from the government’s general fund to the highway trust fund in response to a similar shortfall, allowing states to move ahead with hundreds of job-creating transportation projects. Congress may do that again this year.

Lawmakers could also consider tweaking the economic-stimulus law so states could use some of their stimulus money to compensate for other budget shortfalls. In most cases, states can’t use stimulus funds to compensate for budget deficits in their transportation-spending plans.

Congress and the administration are crafting legislation that would determine how the federal government funds transportation projects over the next several years. With the White House opposed to a gas-tax increase, lawmakers are trying to identify new money sources to maintain the nation’s infrastructure.

One hint of their approach could come later this month when Rep. James Oberstar (D., Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is slated to unveil his blueprint for transportation spending.

(Source: MSNBC)

Photo: Joe Raymond / AP file. In 2006, the 157-mile-long Indiana Toll Road was leased to a private operator for 75 years for $3.8 billion. Novel approaches to funding offer insights on how the U.S. will fund, build and manage its transportation infrastructure for years to come.

Click here to read the entire article.

Mileage-based tax expensive idea – HaroldNet ..I see that a congressional committee wants to put a mileage-based tax on cars and trucks. This would involve installation of expensive GPS devices in every …

Our view: Leave miles-traveled tax at the roadsideDuluth News Tribune – ‎Late last week in Washington, US Rep. Jim Oberstar touted spending half a trillion dollars to solve the nation’s transportation woes. …

Mileage Tax Discussion in Congress Helicopter Association International – ‎House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar said he will push for a mileage-based tax on cars and trucks to pay for highway programs. …

Mileage-Based Tax Not the Answer to Our Nation’s Infrastructure Needs Americans for Tax Reform – ‎By the Numbers: WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) issued the following response to Rep. James Oberstar’s (D-Minn) call for a …

More Congress Critters Want To Track And Tax Your Driving Habits Techdirt – ‎For years, various state politicians have pushed the idea of a “mileage tax” for driving, and it’s never made much sense at all. Yet, just a few months ago, …