State gasoline taxes themselves are not without significant problems, but at least the politicians are somewhat more likely to be responsive to their constituents’ concerns than the byzantine bureaucracies and Congressional Committees that now rule our fate.

Ideally, we need to gradually introduce market pricing mechanisms into the funding mix; not only would this lead to fewer distortions in the allocations of resources, but the market signals that prices provide are a far better way to help policymakers match supply and demand than the current blunt and often inaccurate guessing game that goes on today. A properly designed pricing system could not only help eliminate congestion today, but it could also send signals to transportation planners regarding exactly where new investments should be made to satisfy demand.

Current transportation planning comes from the top down. It is driven by politics, bureaucratic infighting, and the whims of policymakers and planners.

Instead, transportation policy and planning should be driven by one overriding goal: increasing the mobility of goods, services, and people with the maximum of efficiency using the scarce resources at our disposal. Markets, not planners and politicians, are best suited to achieving this goal.

Eliminating the Federal gas tax, and all the distortions it creates in the decision-making process, would be a great first step to putting citizens in control over how our transportation dollars are spent.