Distribution of Highway Infrastructure Cost Responsibility and Revenue Contribution Shares Among Highway Users in North Carolina: Present Conditions and Future Alternatives

Abstract

As the proportion of fuel-efficient and electric vehicles is rapidly increasing, US states are challenged to meet the greater needs of the aging transportation infrastructure with less funds. The purpose of this study is to support state authorities in understanding the equity implications, feasibility, and effectiveness of many of the currently available transportation funding mechanisms. To fulfill this objective, the study analyzes data from North Carolina (NC) between 2014 and 2017. As a first step, we estimate and compare the transportation infrastructure cost responsibility and revenue contribution of NC highway users. Results indicate that lightweight vehicles contribute substantially more to the revenue compared with their share of cost responsibilities. Single-unit trucks with four or more axles and multi-unit trucks are found to underpay their cost responsibilities by 37% to 92%. We use these results in combination with previous research to assess different scenarios for funding transportation infrastructure in the future. Each alternative is evaluated for its revenue generation potential, equity-related improvements, applicability, and public acceptance. Findings suggest that a moderate increase in traditional taxes such as motor fuels tax, vehicle sales tax, or the state sales tax are practical and reasonable approaches for generating significant additional revenue in the short run without strong opposition from the public. However, all the scenarios analyzed by this study, which are based on tax and fee structures planned or implemented in the USA, are found to have minor impacts in improving equity between the cost responsibility and revenue contribution across vehicle classes.