* DC -Trucking Industry imposes their costs to society every year
-- During National Infrastructure Week earlier this month, we again endured what has become a common refrain of woe about crumbling bridges, structurally deficient roads, and a lack of federal funding for infrastructure. This call for alarm was quickly followed by yet another Congressional band-aid for the nearly bankrupt highway trust fund — and this one will hold for just sixty days... It’s clear that our transportation finance system is broken. To make up the deficit, politicians frequently call for increased user fees — through increased taxes on gasoline, vehicle miles traveled, or even bikes. All the while, one of the biggest users of the transportation network — the trucking industry — has been rolling down the highway fueled by billions in federal subsidies... A new report from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that truck freight causes more than $58 to $129 billion annually in damages and social costs in the form of wear and tear on the roads, crashes, congestion and pollution — an amount well above and beyond what trucking companies currently pay in taxes...
There’s a clear lesson here: It may seem like we have a shortage of infrastructure, or lack the funding to pay for the transportation system, but the fact that truck freight is so heavily subsidized means that there’s a lot more demand (and congestion) on the the roads that there would be if trucks actually paid their way. On top of that, there’d be a lot more money to cover the cost of the system we already have.
So the next time someone laments the sad state of the road system, or wonders why we can’t afford more investment, you might want to point out some 18-wheelers who are now getting a one heck of a free ride, at everyone’s expense...
(Photo: Martin, Himes deplore state of I-95 bridge - StamfordAdvocate - Workers repair a portion of the damaged I-95 bridge passing over the intersection of Lafayette Street and State Street in Stamford, Conn.)
Washington, DC, USA - Streets Blog USA, by Joe Cortright - June 2, 2015Labels: infrastructures funds, trucking industry costs
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