New Poll Shows Overwhelming Public Support for Making Needed Road and Bridge Improvements
9 September 1997
New Poll Shows Overwhelming Public Support for Making Needed Road and Bridge Improvements
WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 -- A nationwide survey released today
shows that Americans overwhelmingly agree that highway improvements should
become a higher U.S. government priority and that the federal gasoline tax
should be used solely to make road and bridge repairs and safety improvements.
The scientifically conducted survey by Penn, Schoen & Bergland Associates
was released at a news conference today by the Transportation Construction
Coalition (TCC), a group of 26 national construction associations and labor
unions who support making much-needed improvements to our nation's
transportation system.
The TCC also released a new research report on the Federal Highway Trust
Fund concluding that, as a result of recent action in the tax bill, the
Highway Trust Fund will receive $74 billion in additional revenues from
highway user fees over the next 10 years, resulting in a Trust Fund balance
(highway account) of $95 billion by the year 2005 unless a means is provided
to spend the additional funding.
T. Peter Ruane, president and CEO of the American Road Transportation
Builders Association (ARTBA) who serves as co-chair of TCC, pointed out that
the just-introduced legislation now moving through the House Transportation &
Infrastructure Committee, called BESTEA, provides the means for a $32 billion
a year annual highway program, which is needed to meet our nation's growing
road and bridge needs.
"The TCC commends the leadership of the House Transportation &
Infrastructure Committee for proposing authorization levels that fully utilize
the revenue coming into the Highway Trust Fund," Ruane said. "A move toward a
$32 billion per year federal highway program will go a long way toward meeting
the investment requirements identified by the U.S. Department of
Transportation that are necessary to ensure a safer and more efficient
national highway network."
The poll of 1,000 adults over the age of 18 revealed the following
highlights:
-- 69 percent say the U.S. government should place an even higher priority
on highway and bridge improvements of any type than it now does.
-- 71 percent support using the more than $6 billion a year in additional
revenue (generated by transferring the 4.3 cents-per-gallon federal
gasoline tax that was passed in 1993 to the Highway Trust Fund) to make
needed highway and bridge safety improvements.
-- 75 percent of Americans say the gasoline tax should be used exclusively
to pay for road and bridge improvements and not for non-transportation
programs.
-- 60 percent oppose the withholding of highway safety improvement funds
if their state has trouble meeting the federal air quality standards.
Stephen E. Sandherr, executive vice president of The Associated General
Contractors of America and co-chair of TCC, said the report on the Federal
Highway Trust Fund compares the need for making needed road and bridge repairs
and improvements with the increased revenues going into the Trust Fund.
"The report documents that our nation's roads and bridges are
deteriorating, traffic congestion is becoming worse, and traffic fatalities
are increasing," Sandherr said. "Our nation's lawmakers now have to address
these problems and it's time to invest in the kind of highway improvements
that will benefit the public for years to come. This can be done without a
tax increase by taking the money that goes into the Highway Trust Fund and
using it as it was intended to make needed road and bridge repairs and safety
improvements."
The report, "How the Highway Trust Fund Has Changed and The Impact On Road
and Bridge Funding Needs," was prepared by The Road Information Program
(TRIP), a nonprofit transportation research group.
Sandherr described the following conditions highlighted in the report:
-- 59 percent of our nation's major roads are in need of repair.
-- 31 percent of bridges are structurally deficient.
-- Congestion and unrepaired roads cost our nation's motorists
$74.7 billion in lost time, wasted fuel and extra vehicle operating
costs.
-- Highway travel has increased by 37 percent over the past 10 years.
-- Since 1973, highway travel has increased by 84 percent while total road
mileage has increased by less than three percent.
In addition, the TCC released an economic report, "The Road to
Prosperity," prepared by ARTBA that demonstrates the dependence of each
state's economy on our nation's road and bridge system.
"This information identifies the tangible contributions our national
highway system makes to the economies of each state," Ruane said. "At the
same time, it underscores the need to further invest all federal highway user
fee revenue in highway and bridge improvements during this year's
reauthorization debate."
SOURCE The Road Information Program
