Monique Verdin, "Headwaters : Tamaracks + Time : Lake Itasca" (2019), digital assemblage. Photograph taken in 2019; United States War Department map of the route passed over by an expedition into the Indian country in 1832 to the source of the Mississippi River.

Tapping User Fees for Transportation

January 26, 2015

Facing a depleted highway trust fund and a flat motor fuel tax, the Obama administration recently opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to help pay for transportation projects. Looking beyond this modest foray into charging people directly for their highway use, Martin Wachs, a longtime transportation analyst, has suggested in Issues that several types of more efficient, and more equitable, user charges are ready to be phased in.