However, by 2018, improvements to vehicle efficiency, a passenger car’s average miles per gallon had increased to 24.4, and drivers thus paid less per vehicle mile traveled, down to 2.1 cents.Īs the U.S. In 1994, a passenger car averaged 20.7 miles per gallon, and drivers paid 3.2 cents in state and federal tax per vehicle mile traveled. Traditionally, funding for roads, highways, and bridges has come from motor fuel taxes at both the state and federal levels. On top of Congressional neglect, the pandemic also had it out for infrastructure funding last year, HFT receipts from the gas tax were down 9.4% over the previous fiscal year due to a reduction in driving because of the pandemic. According to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) will run out of money by the end of 2021. While 36 states have increased motor fuel tax rates over the last decade in trying to keep up with infrastructure needs, the federal government has not updated the gas tax since 1993. Even under this arrangement, American infrastructure has steadily declined. That only brings in $34 billion per year while federal spending has topped $50 billion annually thus, Congress has had to support the HTF by transfers from the general fund. The HTF, which pays for roadway and transit systems, is financed primarily through the federal gas tax, currently 18.4 cents-per-gallon.
#Vmt vehicle miles traveled how to#
However, Biden and the 117th Congress face the same challenge that the Trump administration and the 116th Congress failed to resolve: how to pay for it all.
After many years, infrastructure investment seems poised to become a reality. roads, bridges, waterways, and dams over the next decade, as well as other critically underfunded parts of American’s infrastructure. President Joe Biden’s forthcoming stimulus package is set to focus on efforts to rebuild U.S.
Digital collage by Ryan Stevens image sources by Gerd Altmann, andreas160578, & Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay