The road ahead looks very bumpy

As you sit in traffic this morning on your way to work in Southern California, you might wonder what Congress has done in the last 18 months to help you, one of the millions of victims of the nation’s worst congestion.

The House last week finally broke an ideological logjam that continued for 18 months and passed a bill that would provide $284 billion for highways over the next six years. It would finance hundreds of new road projects, increasing overall highway funding nationwide by 48% compared with the last six years.

It sounds like a lot, but many Republicans and Democrats believe it’s hardly enough to stop the deterioration of the nation’s highway system. The Department of Transportation had estimated $500 billion was needed to meet the needs of growing traffic volume and to redress delayed maintenance.

We see that deterioration every day in the form of traffic jams, crummy looking freeways and road surfaces that feel like they were used for bombing practice by the Air Force. It’s great fun to buy and own a car, but becoming less fun to use it on our nation’s roads.

At one time, the transportation system was a powerful symbol of the nation’s wealth and a force in making the U.S. economy competitive. But as I drive up the Long Beach Freeway, clogged with trucks from the ports, it seems more like a scene out of a Third World country.

The problems affect not only our time but our safety. A third of the 44,000 highway deaths each year are attributed in part to substandard roads and other hazards such as obsolete traffic intersections.

Why not spend what we need? None of the money for highways comes from income taxes or Social Security taxes. It is all collected from gas taxes and federal excise taxes on such items as new tire sales. And for the last seven years, every penny of those taxes has gone to highways, following reforms that ended the practice of stealing highway funds for other programs.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, pressed for at least $375 billion over the next six years, arguing that we should increase gas taxes by 5 cents a gallon initially and then index the tax to inflation. That would raise the tax another estimated half cent a year for the next six years. As it is, the current 18.4-cent federal gas tax has been unchanged for 11 years and has steadily eroded because of inflation.

Under Young’s plan, the tax would have increased a total of 8 cents over the next six years, a fraction of the overall gasoline price increases that have occurred recently because of skyrocketing crude costs.

The idea had support from a majority of Democrats and Republicans around the country until the anti-tax crowd pressed House leaders to block the plan. “People were screaming,” said Steven Hansen, the committee’s communications director.

A lot of people were aligned to oppose a better highway system.

Pickup truck and SUV owners chimed in, saying they were carrying an unfair share of the load. Environmentalists have no love of road-building, preferring mass transit. And many conservatives, such as Orange County Republican Rep. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar), are committed to fight all kinds of taxes.

“In general, he has never supported a tax increase,” said Kevin McKee, a staffer in Miller’s office. “He is happy with the funding level in the bill.”

Even at the lower level, Miller’s staff noted, the House approved $391 million in improvements for the terribly choked 91 freeway that goes through Orange County. That will help, but it probably will not remedy the congestion on the 91 for very long.

As the final vote drew close last week, sideshows began to pop up under the big tent. A congressman from Arkansas tried to slip in an amendment to permit Wal-Mart to allow its truck drivers to be on duty 16 hours a day, an increase of two hours over current rules. That triggered a tempest before it was withdrawn, but is expected to resurface in the Senate.

President Bush wanted to spend only $256 billion, about half of the Transportation Department’s projected spending requirements. Even the Republican-controlled Senate could see more was needed and passed a bill last year that called for $318 billion in spending.

Instead of higher gas taxes, the Bush administration pressed for and received language in the bill that will increase reliance on toll roads to supplement federal spending. The performance of toll road projects in Southern California is clearly mixed, and at least one is in financial trouble.

Ultimately, the compromise was struck for $284 billion, a level that Young and many others say is inadequate. But it was passed Thursday by an overwhelming margin, 417-9. The bill now goes to the Senate, where approval is likely.

The 48% increase under the spending bill does not come from higher tax rates but rather from projected increases in gasoline sales. That means usage of the roads is going up 48% as well. So, even with the increase in spending, we are not getting ahead of the problem over the next half decade. There is no money to remedy the deferred maintenance, and future funding for expansion to meet growing traffic will be eroded as inflation eats away at the value of the dollar.

At best, the U.S. transportation system will only continue its slow downward spiral.

Ralph Vartabedian can be reached at ralph.vartabedian@

latimes.com.