A P3 developer of U.S. toll concessions is not happy with all the talk about tolling as the answer to what he sees is an existential question for America—how to modernize and maintain our surface transportation system. Don’t write off the gas tax, he says: “It’s a disservice to say the gas tax is dead.”
Polls showing strong public support for tolling Interstates in order to rebuild them are disingenuous, he says. That’s because 95% of the people polled don’t use toll roads on a regular basis, and wouldn’t have to share the rebuilding expense, which Ed Regan of CDM Smith puts at about $2.5 trillion.