Drivers pay just 51% of the cost of U.S. roads & highways; Missouri drivers pay just 22.9%

One of the persistent discussions we have with transportation engineers and officials--and members of the general public--is whether bicyclists pay their fair share of costs, and whether drivers pay their fair share.

I remember early in the 2000s I had an extensive discussion with a MoDOT employee who insisted that every nickel spent on MoDOT roads came from user fees and fuel taxes paid by drivers. That wasn't true then and it's even less true now (it was only true even then if one took a very myopic view of what the total cost of roads to a community really is, ignored certain complicating factors in the federal transportation funding system, and also ignored the fact that most funding for city and state roads in Missouri--a huge part of the state road network--came from general tax funds, which very much counterbalanced the fact that most MoDOT did funds came from user fees). 

The heartbreak of highly expensive bicycle facilities.

Back then, a careful and comprehensive analysis showed that neither bicyclists or motorists really paid their fair share of the full costs of roads and highways through user fees.  But on a per-mile basis, the motorist was subsidized far, far more than the bicyclist.  One study showed that bicyclists are subsized about 0.2 cents per mile while motorists are subsidized about 1.4 cents per mile--7 times more.

Developments over the past ten year mean that drivers are far more heavily subsidized now than they were then.  The failure of Congress and most states, including Missouri, to raise fuel taxes to keep pace with inflation means that an ever-increasing percentage of the cost of roads is paid for by general tax funds.  That amount is now just about 50%, according to this Streetsblog article:

There’s a persistent misconception in American culture that transit is a big drain on public coffers while roads conveniently and totally pay for themselves through the magic of gas taxes. And that used to be true — at least for interstate highways, a fraction of the total road network.

But that was many, many failed attempts to raise the gas tax ago. A new report from the Tax Foundation shows 50.7 percent of America’s road spending comes from gas taxes, tolls, and other fees levied on drivers. The other 49.3 percent? Well, that comes from general tax dollars, just like education and health care. The way we spend on roads has nothing to do with the free market, or even how much people use roads.

The Tax Foundation report digs into the numbers for each state.  It turns out that Missouri drivers pay just 22.9% of road spending through fuel taxes, tolls, and other user fees.  

The remaining 77.1% of road and highway costs are paid through the general fund.

That puts Missouri 38th out of the 50 states.  Number 1 was Delaware, where user fees covered 59.3% of road costs; number 50 was Alaska, where drivers paid only 5.2% of the cost.