Modern Transportation Funding and the User Pays Principle: Are drivers paying for what they get and getting what they pay for?.

摘要

hrinking gas tax purchasing power has resulted in a growing dependence on local transportation dedicated sales taxes to fund California roadway and transit projects. However, these new funding strategies stray from the traditional user pays principle embodied in the gas tax and long espoused by the Federal Highway Administration as the fairest way to finance highway projects. Using the Presidio Parkway (an ongoing Public Private Partnership project in San Francisco which utilizes availability payments) as a case study of current highway construction financing we find that federal and state gas taxes are still the largest source of funding at 53% while federal support, tolls, and sales taxes contribute 23%, 16%, and 8% respectively. An analysis of users of the facility, in the form of commuters who use private cars and bus transit to access downtown from the surrounding San Francisco and North Bay area, reveals that individual contributions through a host of transportation taxes and fees are miniscule when compared to the annual availability payments received by the concessionaire. We found that commuters' average annual contribution to the new facility ranged from