Gas Tax
Will the Next Transpo Chair Continue Attacks on Bike/Ped Funding?
This is the second of two posts examining Rep. Bill Shuster’s candidacy for the chairmanship of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Yesterday, we took a look at Shuster's positions on rail and his leadership style. Here we delve into his record on active transportation and the always-thorny topic of funding.
November 15, 2012
What Has President Obama Done to Improve American Transportation Policy?
With the election just days away, it’s a good time to reflect on what the Obama administration has done with transportation policy – and what a Romney administration might have in store. Streetsblog does not endorse candidates. This is an overview of their respective records and a look back at what we know of these two men. We’ll start with President Obama in this post and move on to Mitt Romney in the next one.
November 2, 2012
John Boehner Makes Stuff Up About Gas Prices
Out of thin air, House Speaker John Boehner sent an email yesterday with the subject line, "Labor Day Pain: Gas Prices Have Doubled on President Obama's Watch." As evidence of the "doubling" charge, Boehner links to his own website, where he claims, "The average price for a gallon of gasoline was $1.85 when President Obama took office."
September 5, 2012
Oregon Takes the Next Step in Moving Beyond the Gas Tax
Rep. Earl Blumenauer likes to say that Oregon was the first state to adopt a gas tax and it will be the first state to get rid of it. In 2006-2007, the state conducted a pilot study of alternative revenue collection methods, with an eye toward moving to a better system. This fall, they’ll do another pilot, fine-tuning their process for replacing the gas tax with a vehicle-miles-traveled fee.
August 3, 2012
Getting Over the Privacy Hurdle to Mileage-Based Road Fees
Liisa Ecola is a senior project associate at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution.
June 6, 2012
From a Reader: Seven More Questions For the Transportation Conference
Last week, I published a list of seven questions I had as the Transportation Conference Committee started meeting. I was examining the politics, not the policy. Turns out some readers wanted to hear more about the policy.
May 17, 2012
With or Without Tougher CAFE Rules, Today’s Gas Tax Is Unsustainable
Would stricter fuel economy rules bankrupt transportation funding in America? The Congressional Budget Office seems to think so, but environmentalists are quick to say that the system was hurtling toward bankruptcy anyway.
May 9, 2012
What Libertarians Talk About When They Talk About Transportation Reform
There's more than one way to approach transportation reform. One is to believe that an ideal transportation policy promotes the use of modes that are environmentally sustainable and which foster livable cities, while those that perpetuate overdependence on automobiles do neither.
April 24, 2012
Maryland Governor Stymied in Effort to Raise State Gas Tax
Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley of Maryland was dealt a setback last week when the legislature failed to approve a revenue package that would have shored up funding for transportation projects.
April 18, 2012
Congress Agrees to Kick the Can for 90 More Days
Yesterday, before taking off for a two-week recess, Congress passed a three-month extension of SAFETEA-LU, the ninth since it first expired on September 30, 2009. It now only needs the president's signature sometime before midnight on Saturday to become law.
March 30, 2012