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News & Current Events Mar 28, 2026 at 2:50 PM

As Crumbling Roads Increase Costs for American Drivers, Consumer Reports Looks at Fair, Effective Ways to Fund Transportation

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As Crumbling Roads Increase Costs for American Drivers, Consumer Reports Looks at Fair, Effective Ways to Fund Transportation - CR Advocacy
CR Advocacy
As Crumbling Roads Increase Costs for American Drivers, Consumer Reports Looks at Fair, Effective Ways to Fund Transportation - CR Advocacy
Washington, DC—With deteriorating American roads costing everyday drivers $167 billion annually, Consumer Reports (CR) today released a new report to help policymakers create an infrastructure…
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falilth Mar 28, 2026 +10
The solution is tax the rich more.
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OP_Skis_In_Jeans Mar 28, 2026 +5
At least make the road tax progressive like federal income tax. The current system puts far too much of the burden on consumers rather than commercial vehicles, despite commercial trucks causing nearly all of the wear on the roads. https://www.gao.gov/products/109954 The current system also puts far too much of the relative burden on consumers on the poor: it's essentially a flat tax.
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MasterK999 Mar 28, 2026 +1
I get what you mean but that would pass the cost down to consumers anyway. Any increase for business will be passed on to consumers. The only way to shift burden to the rich is to increase registration fees based on the value of the vehicle. Which would be good.
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OP_Skis_In_Jeans Mar 28, 2026 +2
> The only way to shift burden to the rich Paying for roads out of the general fund would work too, at least in places with progressive tax structures. > increase registration fees based on the value of the vehicle. This is a bit better than the current system, but it's still regressive because poor people spend a much greater percentage of their income/net worth on vehicles.
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AccidentalTourista Mar 28, 2026 +2
And build a decent rail system
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PortChuffer47 Mar 28, 2026 +1
And build fast trains with some of the money.
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Biodiversity1001 Mar 28, 2026
IDK about you but I pay excise tax on vehicle registration, gasoline tax property tax for road maintenance and repair, and then there are toll roads. wtf they spending all that money on? logging the trees off the sides, in my State at least.
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aaprillaman Mar 28, 2026 +1
They spend it on the new infrastructure and on the old infrastructure.  Here’s the problem, all that tax revenue can’t cover our infrastructure costs.  We have collectively decided to essentially ignore many of those costs using accounting so they are invisible until it’s time to actually spend the money.  Our almost complete reliance on car first infrastructure means it’s some of the most expensive infrastructure possible and the numbers are eye watering.  So for now we play musical chairs and for the moment we can kinda stay ahead of it, but the music will stop. 
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P1xelHunter78 Mar 28, 2026 +1
I also suspect some of our procurement processes for road systems aren’t exactly fair and competitive.
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Leather_Egg2096 Mar 28, 2026 +2
More trains less trucks.... 
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Stunning_Process7388 Mar 28, 2026 +1
In TN we tried to do pot for potholes and it was going great but nope. It's like the government wants us to tear up our vehicles 
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LargeSinkholesInNYC Mar 28, 2026 +1
America is cooked.
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defectconstraint Mar 28, 2026 +1
What was the highest marginal tax rate when the US Interstate system was proposed by Eisenhower?
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OP_Skis_In_Jeans Mar 28, 2026
Get rid of the stupid regressive use taxes on consumers and pay for the roads from the general fund like other government spending. The entire notion that non-commercial users should pay based on how much they drive is horrifically flawed. Everyone benefits from the road network (yes, even people who don't drive buy stuff that arrives via the roads) therefore everyone should help pay for it proportionally according to their income. This could be used in conjunction with a commercial use tax based on a combination of miles driven and vehicle weight.
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