TRB Special Report 303: Equity of Evolving Transportation Finance Mechanisms (2011) / Chapter Skim
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1 Equity and Transportation Finance
1 Equity and Transportation Finance
Pages 21-36
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From page 21... ...
The equity implications of alternative and evolving finance mechanisms have captured the attention of politicians and the public. Most notably, concerns have been raised about the possibility of tolls pricing poor drivers off the road, leading to the popular moniker "Lexus lanes" to describe congestion pricing policies that charge drivers more to travel particular routes or use selected lanes at peak travel times (Schweitzer 2009)
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From page 22... ...
To set the context for the discussions in later chapters, the next section of this chapter examines the role of equity in the evolution of U.S. surface transportation finance, with emphasis on the focus areas of this report, namely, personal travel by automobile and transit.
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From page 23... ...
In the United States, political debates over transportation finance have centered on questions of equity for more than a century and, as the following overview illustrates, have played a key role in shaping the ways in which the surface transportation system is currently funded. Local Streets Local streets make up the vast majority of the U.S.
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From page 24... ...
An alternative approach to highway funding came when states, starting with Oregon in 1918, adopted motor fuel taxes -- taxes that have paid most of the costs of building and operating major roads in the United States for nearly nine decades. In contrast to tolls, motor fuel taxes do not levy charges at precisely the time and place of road use; however, they charge for road use in rough proportion to motorists' travel, and heavier vehicles pay more because they use more fuel per mile.
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From page 25... ...
During the period from 1920 to 1945, highway finance shifted away from general instruments of taxation toward user fees in the form of motor fuel taxes. The user fee logic was codified during the period from 1945 to 1970 by putting motor fuel tax revenues into trust funds (Taylor 2006)
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From page 26... ...
Today, public transit receives federal subsidies for capital expenses, while operations are funded by local and state subsidies from general revenues or dedicated taxes (often sales taxes) , direct user fees (fares)
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From page 27... ...
LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY Legal Protections and Rights An array of constitutional protections, statutory mandates, presidential executive orders, and regulations accompanying federal grants or contracts collectively ensures that disadvantaged groups are included in transportation planning efforts, receive appropriate transportation services, and are given fair access to transportation infrastructure (see Appendix A for more detail)
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From page 28... ...
DOT regulations define the phrase "effect of excluding persons" to mean that government actions cannot create what is called a "disparate impact." Disparate impacts occur when transportation services are delivered in ways that create benefits for some users but not for others or create disproportionate benefits for some system users compared with others. Disparate impacts are, however, a common occurrence -- no transportation system is ubiquitous, service levels and quality vary substantially across an area in response to different ridership or traffic patterns, and costs and benefits are rarely distributed evenly or even in response to usage patterns.
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From page 29... ...
Policy Questions Travelers who are neither poor nor otherwise disadvantaged (and who are not afforded protections under Title VI and related regulations) may 9 In February 2010, the Federal Transit Administration withdrew $70 million in federal stimulus funds from the proposed Oakland Airport Connector project following a complaint filed under Title VI.
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From page 30... ...
, who notes that, on average, older drivers subsidize younger drivers because the former tend to avoid peakperiod driving and major highways, but nonetheless pay the taxes needed to provide peak-period capacity on major roads. As these examples illustrate, current financing mechanisms raise questions about equity, even though such questions have attracted relatively little public scrutiny as compared with evolving mechanisms, notably road pricing.
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From page 31... ...
Against this backdrop, the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee decided at its meeting in early 2008 that more time and effort were needed to understand the complexity of equity issues in financing the nation's surface transportation system (Rosenbloom 2009)
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From page 32... ...
In developing the symposium agenda (Appendix D) , the committee sought to maximize its opportunities to listen to and learn from participants on a range of topics, including • The politics of transportation finance and the roles of equity, • Public opinion on equity and transportation finance, • International experience, • Modeling travel and land use patterns to inform equity assessments, and • Remedies for problems of transportation equity.
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From page 33... ...
Nonetheless, most authors identify user fees collected through electronic tolling (generally referred to as "road pricing") as an alternative finance strategy, the details of which continue to evolve as experience is gained with practical applications.
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From page 34... ...
ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT The next chapter discusses sources of surface transportation revenues in the United States and presents a taxonomy of transportation funding approaches, with emphasis on evolving mechanisms. This discussion is directed primarily to transportation officials who are not familiar with the topic.
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From page 35... ...
REFERENCES Abbreviations APTA American Public Transportation Association NSTIFC National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission NSTPRSC National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission TRB Transportation Research Board APTA.
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From page 36... ...
Presentation to the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, October 18. http://transportationfortomorrow.
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