Your Prius will bankrupt the highways

last updated 8 January 2015

Jordan Weissmann

TheAtlantic.com

America’s system for funding its highways “is breaking down like an old jalopy,” said Jordan Weissmann. Since Eisenhower, the government has used fuel taxes to maintain the Highway Trust Fund, which helps run and repair U.S. roads and bridges. That worked fine for decades. But Americans are now favoring fuel-efficient cars and driving less, and gas taxes haven’t been raised since 1993. As a result, the fund faces potential insolvency next year, and prospects are even worse down the road. A congressional commission found in 2009 that if cars’ average fuel efficiency rises to 45 miles per gallon by 2035, the fund’s inflation-adjusted balance could drop by as much as 40 percent. Since the White House wants automakers to increase their fuel economy to 54.5 mpg by 2025, the fund could be depleted even sooner than projected. In short, “we can’t keep relying on fuel taxes” to keep highways from crumbling. Reasonable fixes, such as charging drivers during peak hours or by the mile, are going nowhere in Washington. So we’re left with a looming infrastructure crisis and “a recipe for gridlock.”