From time to time, there is an article calling for raising the federal gas tax,⛽ usually authored pushed by highway construction interests.👷 The argument is that the federal gas tax has not been raised in a quarter century, and it’s lost purchasing power over the subsequent decades as everything has gotten more expensive. 📈

That ignores the fact that highway mileage driven over the past 25 years has increased enormously — back in 1994 Americans drove 2.3 billion miles while by 2017 Americans drove 3.2 billion miles. The highway trust fund is getting richer and richer all of the time. Cars may be more fuel efficient then ever in the past but we are driving many more miles. 🚗🚌🚐🚚🚛

Instead of raising fuel taxes, we should look at redirecting existing fuel tax revenue from capital projects to maintenance of the existing highways and operational support for public transportation systems. We need to stop building new and wider highways, 🚦and focus more on patching potholes, fixing dangerous bridges, keeping existing infrastructure in good quality.🛠 Rather then replacing bus shelters and buses all of the time, federal funds should be expended to expand bus service to run more regularly — using existing buses — rather then throwing away old buses in favor shinny new ones.

We could save billions if we got away from the “use up and quickly discard” method of transportation infrastructure, 🗑 and focus the limited transportation infrastructure resources we have on repair 🔧 rather then replacing of existing bridges and building new roads. 🚘 For too long, we have literally been throwing taxpayer money away on new and expanded infrastructure, 💸 rather then using the limited resources to repair rather then replace the existing infrastructure. 🌉