A problem not mentioned is the fact that many vehicles are becoming much more efficient, using less gasoline, but still requiring the same service on the roadways. Also, there are several hundred thousand vehicles in operation that do not pay the fuel tax. They are running on CNG (compressed natural gas), hydrogen, electricity, or even in some cases waste vegetable oils.

As these vehicles become more and more common the gasoline/diesel fuel tax will have to be increased or many of our "freeways" will have to become "tollways," which will cause increased traffic on the alternate roads. Within a couple of years we will have large numbers of plug-in hybrids that will use little or no gasoline/diesel, but still use the roadways.

It looks to me like we will need to develop new ways of raising funds in order to maintain our roads and traffic problems. In addition mass transit will have to stop being subsidized from the highway fuel taxes.

We can't fund our own nation's infrastructure, but we have spent over $ 1 trillion on Iraq.