Jun 23 2008
Gas Usage Downturn Leads To Damaging Roads
While increased fuel prices have hurt many in their wallets, there is an underlying situation that will have a huge effect on your city streets. Each time you fill your tank, a small fee, currently a little over $0.18 of federal tax is included into the price. This tax is used for many projects including roads and bridges. Drivers are turning to alternative sources and limiting trips and finding ways to cut back on fuel consumption and driving their SUVs less. I heard a statistic last week that we are driving 4 billion less miles each month.
The situation intensifies when drives use less fuel and less tax is collected. With a smaller revenue base to work with, projects are placed into a waiting area and the damaged roads have to wait for constructions crews to update the worn and crumbling paths.