Originally Posted by
Roody
The revenue from the federal gas tax is supposed to go into the highway trust fund to be used to build and maintain highways.
However, the trust fund only pays for a fraction of the total cost of highways, and that fraction is decreasing every year. Much of the money to pay for roads come from genreal tax revenues, through incom. sales and property taxes and other taxes. So it is accurate to say that cyclists pay taxes to support the roads that they ride on, even if they don't pay into the highway trust fund.
It also generally only pays for the major highways -- which few cyclists ride on. (And it pays only a fairly small fraction of the total cost.)
I can't speak for other states, but in Texas, there's also a state component to the gasoline tax, and it also only pays for the state highway system -- which cyclists rarely use. It doesn't pay for the city roads that aren't part of the highway system (if your road doesn't have a number and a route shield on it, it's not part of the state highway system.)
Here, the roads cyclists do mostly use are paid for by sales tax and property taxes.