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New
Study Predicts Highway Trust Fund Deficit by 2010
A new U.S. Chamber of Commerce study shows
federal transportation funding will only pay roughly 50 percent of
what is required to maintain and improve the transportation
infrastructure in the United States as gas tax revenue fails to keep
up with increasing road construction costs.
The Future Highway and Public Transportation Finance Study, is the first part of a two stage examination of the nation's
highway and transit requirements from an economic perspective.
The study is meant to be a comprehensive investigation into
alternatives that would supplement the federal fuel tax for
financing the Highway Trust Fund over the next three decades.
The study determined the trust fund could be
running in deficit as soon as 2010 if current funding arrangements
continue unchanged. The study also determined that current
transportation revenues at all levels of government are not
sufficient to maintain or improve the nation's highways and transit
systems.
This study highlights
the national challenge we all face as state and federal road
networks are showing their age and as costs to maintain the system
continue to escalate faster than inflation. Politically it is very
difficult to obtain voter support for either high gas taxes or a new
financing to supplement existing gas taxes. The projected long term
funding deficit for transportation is primarily caused by the
failure to index fuel taxes for inflation and the increasing fleet
gas mileage rate and correspondingly decreasing gas tax revenue that
is exacerbated by the accelerating popularity of hybrid vehicles.
State Conference Committee Supports Funding
For Local Freeway Service Patrols
The Joint Senate
Assembly Budget Conference Committee recently voted to
allocate $2 million to create new freeway service
patrols in Santa Barbara, Placer and San Bernardino
Counties. If these funds are retained in the final FY
2005-06 State Budget the new service could be in
operation early next year. State Assemblymember Pedro
Nava is Chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on
Transportation and he was a key supporter of the
additional funding approved by the committee.
A tremendous amount of congestion
on freeways is caused by disabled vehicles on the side of the road
and other non-recurrent traffic incidents (eg. construction work,
debris in travel lanes, collisions) Even if the car is not actually
blocking lanes, motorists invariably glance at the incident and take
their foot off the accelerator. The cumulative effect of these
individual actions ripples quickly and can cause significant traffic
congestion. A freeway service patrol can remedy this situation by
quickly removing the stranded vehicle from the freeway.
The proposed new freeway service
patrol will have two tow trucks circulating on the South Coast 101
freeway in a loop route during the peak traffic hour to quickly
reach stranded motorists and move their vehicles off the freeway.
This service would be provided free to motorists but would not tow
their vehicle to a repair shop, only to the nearest safe location
beyond the nearest freeway off ramp.
Studies indicate freeway service
patrols are one of the most efficient traffic congestion relief
tools available. Caltrans estimates as much as a ten to one return
in congestion relief as compared to the cost of providing the
service.
Farmworkers To Benefit From New Vanpool Pilot Program
The County of Santa
Barbara and City of Santa Maria will begin a new vanpool
service in March of 2006 to transport farmworkers in the
Santa Maria Valley from their homes to the fields. The
organizational structure of the service and the number
of potential vans and their routes has not yet been
determined. Representatives from the County and City of
Santa Maria will be working with farm workers,
agriculturalists and transportation providers over the
next few months to design the new service. After the
service has been implemented, it will be evaluated to
determine if it should be continued.
The SBCAG Board found this new
service was not an unmet transit need under the current definition,
but the local agencies volunteered to initiate this new service
using a portion of their Transit Development Act allocations. The
County of Santa Barbara has pledged $100,000 and the City of Santa
Maria will contribute and additional $50,000 to the pilot vanpool
program.
A similar
vanpool service operating in Kings County has proven to be a
success. Many farm workers in California do not have driver’s
licenses and must rely on informal private transportation providers
who often charge high fees and are unreliable to get to their jobs.
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