The search for petroleum alternatives is not new. Ever since the turn of the century, when petroleum became the dominant transportation fuel, authoritative sources have warned occasionally of impending oil shortages (1, 2). When oil prices rose or oil depletion seemed imminent, interest and...

The demand for rail transit funds greatly exceeds available monies. Worse, there is wide-spread disagreement over the wisdom of building rail systems in American cities. The Urban Mass Transportation Administration’s (UMTA’s) transit analysis methods have relied on...

There has been considerable discussion about the extent to which motor-vehicle use in the US is "subsidized," making petroleum-based motor vehicle use more attractive than other transportation modes. Estimates of these subsidies vary widely, and in many cases can be criticized on methodological...

Analyses of the full social cost of motor vehicle use in the US often estimate an "oil import premium" that includes the military cost of defending oil supplies from the Persian Gulf. Estimates of this cost have ranged from essentially zero to upwards of a $1 per gallon (about $0.25 per liter)....

Governments in the US spend over a hundred billion dollars per year to build and maintain roads and provide a variety of services for motor-vehicle users. To pay for these infrastructure and services governments collect revenue from a variety of taxes and fees. The basic objective of this paper...

Every year, Americans drivers spend hundreds of billions of dollars on highway transportation. They pay for vehicles, maintenance, repair, fuel, lubricants, tires, parts, insurance, parking, tolls, registration, fees, and other items. These expenditures buy Americans considerable personal...