Everyone in the United States benefits from a national surface transportation system that moves people and freight safely, reliably, efficiently and effectively. Manufacturers and consumers profit when the nation's network of highways and railroad tracks helps goods move quickly and cheaply across the country. Motorists appreciate roads that are safe, smooth and congestion free. Transit riders want trains and buses that are on time and can speed them quickly to their destination. Families benefit when parents know that traffic will not prevent them from arriving home from work in time to see their daughter play in a softball game or their son sing in the school choir. Pollution is reduced when cars and trucks can pass quickly through a stretch of highway and are not stuck in stop-and-go traffic.
Although everyone benefits from the surface transportation system, state lawmakers are facing a serious challenge to find sufficient funding to meet growing transportation needs. Population growth, greater amounts of individual travel, and increases in economic activity and freight shipments are deteriorating existing transportation infrastructure, causing congestion and increasing the overall burden on the surface transportation network. At the same time, many states have less money available to spend on transportation. Gas taxes-the staple of transportation funding in most states-have declined in their purchasing power, are less capable of filling the funding need, and have increasingly become politically difficult to increase. Other funding sources, such as state general funds, are being squeezed by major items such as education, and many states have found it difficult to keep pace with transportation funding needs.