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[quote user="agdocsouter"] Don't want to get to pickey about losses per mile, but would like to question how much each state looses on their highways say per passenger mile, or vehicle mile, (probably pretty close to the same, from my observation of vehicle passenger loads).  Wouldn't federal road funds be considered a loss, also, as the monies contribute to the national debt? [/quote] Highways are infrastructure.  They are not intended to turn a profit, with the possible exception of some toll roads.  The users are expected to pay for them.  And they do. Roadways in the United States are paid for by fuel taxes, motorist fees, property taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, state and federal income taxes, etc.   To the extent that the fuel taxes and direct fees, as well as tolls, don't cover the cost of the roadways, they are paid for by property taxes (city streets and county roads) and/or transfers from the state and general tax funds. So who pays into the general funds.  Motorists for the most part. As of FY12 there were 211,814,830 licensed motorists in the United States. Or approximately 88 to 92 per cent of the adult population!  Most of them pay state and federal income taxes, corporate taxes, property taxes, etc. They pay directly or indirectly most of the monies that flow into the general funds, as well as the property taxes, sales and excise taxes, etc., and it is from these funds that the monies to cover the difference between the cost of the roadways paid for by direct user fees and the total cost is drawn.   The monies in the general fund don't come from little green men from Mars bearing sacks of money to cover the deficiencies in the highway trust fund. Or from France! Or anywhere else!  Of those people who are not motorists, a significant portion of them are too poor to have a car. In Dallas, for example, 45 per cent of the people who ride DART's buses, as well as 23 per cent of the people who use the light rail system, don't have a car.  Public transit is their only option.  In many instances they are not tax payers; they are tax consumers. There is a relatively small percentage of the population that does not drive, for a variety of reasons, that pays state and federal taxes (directly and indirectly) that are part of the monies transferred to the highway trust fund.  But they probably are a very small part of the population. The notion that motorists don't pay for the cost of the nation's roadways is wrong.  Given the large number of motorists, they are the ones that pay for the roadways, but they don't see the total cost at the pump or other price points. There is a subsidy for motorists.  But it is not what many people think. Upper income people, because they pay more in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, etc., as well as federal income taxes, ares subsidizing lower income motorists.  It has been that way since the get go, and it is likely to remain so.
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