What Do Americans Think About Federal Tax Options to Support Public Transit, Highways, and Local Streets and Roads? Results From Year Four of a National Survey

Abstract

This report summarizes the results of a national public opinion poll asking respondents if they would support various tax options for raising federal transportation revenues, with a special focus on understanding support for increasing revenues for public transit. Eleven specific tax options tested were variations on raising the federal gas tax rate, creating a new mileage tax, and creating a new federal sales tax. Other questions probed various perceptions related to public transit, including knowledge and opinions about federal taxes to support transit. Results show that a majority of Americans would support higher taxes for transportation—under certain conditions. For example, a gas tax increase of 10¢ per gallon to improve road maintenance was supported by 67 percent of respondents, whereas support levels dropped to just 23 percent if the revenues were to be used more generally to maintain and improve the transportation system. Survey results show that most people want good public transit service in their state and two-thirds of respondents support spending gas tax revenues on transit. However, questions exploring different methods to raise new revenues found relatively low levels of support for raising gas tax or transit fare rates.

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