А.Т.Л.
Study of the
Greensboro-Lexington lloacl Shows
How Our
Super
Highways
Pay
Since the construction of 41,000
miles of super highways, now being
linked across the nation to form the
Interstate Highway System, is an am¬
bitious and expensive undertaking
per sc, and one which must be paid
for with your tax dollars and mine,
an average citizen's most emphatic re¬
action is likely to be "What's it going
to cost me?”
But researchers who make it their
business to know about such things
have turned the question around:
"What's it going to pay me?"
Such a group is the Department of
Research of the American Trucking
Association, one of the organizations
which holds that super highways arc
an expedient piece of the country's
progress. Some time ago A.T.A’s re¬
searchers set out to answer the ques¬
tion by studying representative sections
of the new highway net at widely dis¬
persed locations.
In North Carolina, where the group
studied a 33. 3-mile section of U.S. 29
and 70, between Lexington and
Greensboro, they concluded that the
new super highway not only pays its
own way — it returns an annual profit
of $893,098.
To bridge the wide gap between the
taxpayer's "what will it cost" and this
refreshing answer, we talked with Dick
Staley, A.T.A.'s research man. who in
co-operation with the N. C. Motor
Carrier's Association directed the
study.
In brief the job was to determine
the number of vehicle miles traveled
over the Greensboro-Lexington section,
and to translate this into a proportion¬
ate part of the State and Federal high¬
way user taxes paid by these vehicles.
These were taken as the "earnings."
a reasonable proposition considering
the relatively direct application of ve¬
hicle taxes to roads.
Mr. Staley explained it this way:
vehicle count data were obtained from
the North Carolina Highway Depart¬
ment traffic counts, 1956 taken as the
reference year. The count showed a
total of 2.511.930 vehicles traveling
83,647,269 miles over the Greensboro-
Lexington stretch. Of these 1.831.44$
passenger cars traveled 60.987,218
miles to earn $497.656. 670.183 trucks
traveled 22.317,094 miles to earn
$636.084. 10.299 buses traveled 342.-
957 miles to earn $15,316.
The amount of taxes per mile ac¬
counted for by each class of vehicle
was determined by an average. Earn¬
ings from state taxes included tax on
fuel, registration and operator's li¬
censes. Also included were those
federal highway excise taxes which arc
designated for the Federal Highway
Trust Fund, including the levy on tires,
tubes, gas. diesel fuel, etc.
It was so determined that this road¬
way earned $1,149,000.
Road Costs
Balanced against this earning, the
state paid some $7,000,000 for the
road exclusive of land acquisition; and
the amortized annual costs for con¬
struction, maintenance and administra¬
tion were found to be $256.000 per
year. Thus, the highway tax earnings
of $1.149.000 for the 2.511.930 ve¬
hicles using the road were four and
one-half limes the total annual road
Seen liom on ovc'pon, this link of InJcritote Hi9b*o» corned on onnuol total of 2,511,930 «chiclci.
