As crafted by then-Rep. Second, whether gas prices remained high or low, it would become very difficult for government to reinstate the suspended gas tax after its temporary suspension had expired. The temptation to keep the tax in abeyance, maybe permanently, would be very tempting to legislators and hard to resist in a divided Congress, with devastating results to the road program. In the meantime, the problem of traffic congestion was getting new emphasis under the Bush administration's Department of Transportation. Major action is underway at the Department to tackle surface transportation congestion, Mineta said.
Federal research helps build stronger roads and bridges.
The safer and less disruptive that infrastructure repairs and improvements are to the user, the better. The high quality of life that Americans enjoy today increasingly is jeopardized because our highway system is inadequate to meet the growing need for the reliable movement of goods. Commercial truck travel increased by more than 37 percent from 1990 to 1999, from 96 billion miles of travel in 1990 to 132 billion miles of travel nearly a decade later, TRIP reported. An additional 12 percent is transported by courier services, bringing the total to 84 percent of all goods shipped that travel over roads. And trucks are not only using roadways to move freight, they're storing it there as well, at least temporarily.