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Home Front Economy
U.S. Driving Continues to Decrease
2008-08-14
U.S. driving slid for the eighth straight month in June, making the decline more pronounced that the drop that occurred during the 1970s oil shock.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Americans drove 12.2 billion miles less in June than a year earlier. With that, the decline since November is now 53.2 billion miles, topping the 49.3 billion decline three decades ago. Rural travel has fallen 4% since late last year, while urban driving is off just 1.2%. (See the Federal highway Administration data.)

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters used the latest data to again call for a rethinking of how the nation's transportation network is funded. Federal gas taxes have declined as Americans curb their driving habit amid record gas prices.

Oil prices have slid over the past month, and gasoline prices are off their peak, but Ms. Peters sees trouble ahead in long-term transportation trends.

"We can't afford to continue pinning our transportation network's future to the gas tax," Ms. Peters said Wednesday. "Advances in higher fuel-efficiency vehicles and alternative fuels are making the gas tax an even less sustainable support for funding roads, bridges and transit systems."
Posted by:Fred

#18  The road system in this country is a National Interest. I think you could expect everyone to pay for its upkeep, even if they don't use it.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-08-14 17:16  

#17  re#15: agree lopt. but were you aware that new cars have a black box that records operational parameters and in at least one court case that data was used against the car's (former) owner to show he was speeding? the former owner was suing GM for a faulty car as the cause of the crash. the insurance company totaled the car ( a Corvette), and then had GM download the information. the court case centered on who owned the data and since Joe Speeder sold the car, he didn't. And lost. so the morale of the story is that before you let the Good Hands people take your ride, go to the wrecking yard and get another OBD II box. or burn the other one up.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2008-08-14 14:32  

#16  I wouldn't worry. It's probably "for the children"...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-08-14 14:25  

#15  One of the many reasons I don't want to live in Oregon : Big Brother bugging my car and tracking my movements.

ugh
Posted by: lotp   2008-08-14 14:24  

#14  Oregon is testing an alternative tax; rather than a gas tax it is a use tax. your car's odometer is checked periodically and then you get a bill. to minimize cheats they are using some sort of a GPS that records your car's movements. At the last report i read, about 200 folks had signed up to test it out.

Posted by: USN, Ret.   2008-08-14 14:22  

#13  We could put about 1/10th of the extremely top heavy management of our respective Dept.s of Trans in the shitcan. That would save a boatload of money.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-08-14 12:50  

#12  Tax Tyres.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2008-08-14 12:48  

#11  Don't get lost in the details. The answer is ALWAYS the same.

1. something has happened.
2. politicians want to raise taxes.

Posted by: Slats Glans2659   2008-08-14 11:10  

#10  Let's see if I have this right. People are driving less because gas costs more. Government tax revenues are down because people are driving less. In order to increase gas tax revenues we have to increase gas taxes. Increasing gas taxes will increase gas costs. Increasing gas costs will cause drivers to drive less and use less gas. I get it! S**t-for-brains logic. Makes sense now.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon   2008-08-14 10:29  

#9  Get the road building budget out of the hands of the politicians who award contracts based on political influence and developers who will contribute to their campaigns. Let the engineers who actually analyze traffic patterns and design the road networks specify a list of projects for funding.

Privatize road maintenance. We've all seen the road crew with one man working and the rest standing around.

As for toll roads, what I have seen in my neck of the woods is that friends of the Governor get the concessions (w/ eminent domain enforced by law enforcement) to build and operate toll roads.
Posted by: ed   2008-08-14 09:22  

#8  but it always seemed to me that toll roads are a straightforward employment scheme.

If there is any lingering question regarding this statement, take a drive on I-90 in Northern Illinois.
Posted by: Besoeker   2008-08-14 09:21  

#7  I grew up in New York State. I hate toll roads. Toll collectors have to be paid, after all, not to mention employee overhead, administrative costs, managers wanting promotion, union organizers, training collectors to recognize and stop criminals passing through (they're there anyway, they might as well do something useful), gun licenses so that the collectors can do so... It could be that I don't really understand the intricacies of paying for road maintenance, but it always seemed to me that toll roads are a straightforward employment scheme.

If trucks are the issue, either add a transportation tax for all items shipped by truck, or levy a road maintenance tax on all residents of the state. No, I don't like paying taxes, but ease of transport greases the wheels of commerce.

/yes, I enjoyed writing that last sentence entirely too much.

After all, either way the tax is likely to be much less than the cost of the gasoline that wasn't purchased for the miles not driven, plus the wear and tear on the vehicle not incurred.
Posted by: trailing wife    2008-08-14 09:07  

#6  There's a way around the gas tax: make every road a toll road.
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats   2008-08-14 08:38  

#5  Tipover,
You're absolutely right - sadly though most folks don't look at it that way, and mow might really be a bad time to talk about raising gas taxes, no matter how logical it may be.
And just wait a couple years when people about break their arms patting themselves on the back after buying a Prius or the upcoming Chevy Volt, and they're handed a tax bill - payable immediately - for their share of the gas tax that they thought they weren't paying any more. It's coming.

Mike

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2008-08-14 06:29  

#4  Question: How long has it been since the federal gas tax been increased to account for inflation, let alone the increase in the miles traveled per gallon? I can't remember the last time.

The public must pay for the services it uses. Or stop bitchin' when a bridge or roadway fails.

There ain't no free lunch.
Posted by: tipover   2008-08-14 01:45  

#3  Sorry folks but roads are designed to carry trucks, not cars. The more trucks the more robust the roadway design. And the geometrics are predicated on the traffic count. The more vehicles the more lanes required.

If you don't want food, jobs, to visit the in-laws or live in the burbs 30 miles from work then let the transportation systems go to pot. Some of us are old enough to remember the road systems pre-interstate. It will be a shock to the young folks.

If more folks would be more obliging and die or leave the fewer and less intrusive the roads would have to be. (sarc off?). Otherwise; shut up or pay up. NOTE: Not all transportation departments are run like Chicago or DC.
Posted by: tipover   2008-08-14 01:38  

#2  The problem is that it doesn't reduce the amount of graft and corruption....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2008-08-14 00:39  

#1  Seems to me that the drop in miles driven would lead to a drop in the need to repair roads & bridges.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2008-08-14 00:25  

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