The Hidden Costs of Poor Roads

Crain’s New York Business, March 1, 2018

Rather than focusing on the message, Crain’ shoots the messenger by questioning the GCA’s motivation in comparing the cost of a gas tax increase to the costs of vehicle maintenance and congestion caused by poor road and bridge conditions.

The data the GCA compared were derived from two independent groups, neither of which have an affiliation with the GCA.  TRIP, a D.C. based research organization, compiled and analyzed data for each state from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Congressional Budget Office, AASHTO, and the Texas Transportation Institute.  The gas tax impact data comes from groups determined to prevent any effort to fund improvements to what everyone agrees is outdated national transportation  infrastructure.  Of course GCA members have a self-interest in the matter….like everyone else in the country, we want our transportation infrastructure to get us and our families where we need to go safely and reliably.   That doesn’t change the data or the facts.