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User fees such as fuel tax and registration would have a hard time paying for the space it takes to park this car . |
Recently, heating up in the transportation news is the subject of much discussion and controversy. The debate seems to be regarding the funding of our nation’s highways and infrastructure.
The debate seems to be over how we plan to pay to make the necessary improvements. The focus should be on the long haul however just trying to come up with a short term plan seems to be difficult. Almost everyone you meet feels that they are already paying their fair share to fund a beautiful well maintained highway system…when in fact, after doing some research on my own these funds that we’re paying currently are much less than I envisioned.
In regards to automobiles (cars, suv’s, pick-up trucks, mini vans, etc.…) here is their contribution to funding. In 2011, the average driver/family each year paid on average $170.66 in federal motor fuel taxes or about $3.28 per week. This is based on the average household having 1.75 vehicles per household. These figures are based on the average vehicle being driver 11.318 miles. The average fuel mileage for these vehicles was 21.4 miles per gallon. This means the average vehicle used 530 gallons of fuel. The federal fuel tax per gallon of gasoline is 18.4 cents which means the consumer paid on average $97.52 in federal gasoline taxes for each vehicle they own. This covers federal taxes.
Now, let’s talk about state taxes. The average state gasoline tax as of February 2014 was 24.01 cents per gallon. Keep in mind that state taxes range from 8 cents in excess of 39 cents per gallon. Referring to the above average miles driven, this means the cost of state gas taxes were $114.64 per vehicle. Our state of North Carolina charges $28.00 per year for registration as part of the cost of funding the highways. Looking at these figures, it would seem to me that it would cost more to have your driveway repaved than you are contributing to the highway funding. I began looking at average driveway paving costs and found that to pave a 12x50 driveway, it would cost between $800-1,200 just for the paving costs alone. I saw total estimates which were much more costly when everything was included but let’s just go with the low paving cost alone. If we combine the state and federal gas tax together, the average vehicle would pay $212.16 per year. At this rate, it would take about 4-6 years for a vehicle to just pay for asphalt used on a driveway. Compared with the highway system which needs repairs and rebuild which is often more costly than building new, it’s easy to see where we come up short.
This is just the automobile part of this equation. On a future blog, I will dig farther into this subject…