Seventy-Seven Percent Of Americans Oppose Raising The Gas Tax, Poll Finds

A majority of Americans believe new transportation projects should be paid for with user-fees instead of tax increases, according to a new national Reason-Rupe poll of 1,200 adults on cell phones and land lines.

The poll finds seventy-seven percent of Americans oppose increasing the federal gas tax, while just nineteen percent favor raising the tax, which is currently 18.4 cents a gallon. The public thinks the government wastes the gas tax money it already receives. Sixty-five percent say the government spends transportation funding ineffectively, and just twenty-three percent say money is spent effectively.

The survey shows Americans believe new roads and highways should be paid for by the people driving on them: fifty-eight percent of Americans say new roads and highways should be funded by tolls. Twenty-eight percent say new road capacity should be paid for by tax increases.

The poll finds broad support for user-fees. If a toll road would save drivers a "significant" amount of time, fifty-nine percent of Americans say they would pay to use it. And fifty-seven percent favor converting carpool lanes, or high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, into high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. Voters are much-less supportive of variably-priced toll lanes, however. Half of those surveyed oppose, and thirty-nine percent favor, variably-priced tolls that rise and fall with traffic levels.

In terms of transportation spending priorities, sixty-two percent want to prioritize funding for road and highway projects, while thirty percent want to prioritize funding for mass transit projects.

As the debate over high-speed rail continues in California and elsewhere, a solid majority of Americans, fifty-five percent, say the private sector should build high-speed train systems where it thinks riders will pay to use rail. Just thirty-five percent of Americans believe federal and state governments should build high-speed rail systems where they think the trains are needed.

As governments at all levels look for ways to pay for transportation projects, public officials should note that fifty-five percent of Americans support using public-private partnerships to build critical infrastructure projects. Just thirty-five percent oppose using public-private partnerships to fund highways, airports, and other infrastructure.

The National Transportation Safety Board has called for a ban on cell phones while driving and sixty-nine percent of Americans tell pollsters that talking on a cell phone while driving should be illegal. Even more, eighty-nine percent, say texting while driving should be illegal. The poll did not ask about using hands-free devices.

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