arterial connections. For the other Federal-aid systems, statutory matching requirements would remain unchanged and would amount to slightly less than the Federal contributions of $6.225 billion. To meet the total estimated cost of $45.005 billion needed to bring these other Federal-aid systems (and the forest highway system) up to adequacy, in the 10-year period, however, would require a total expenditure by the State and local governments of $38.78 billion in addition to Federal funds.
The program recommended by the Advisory Committee calls for substantially increased Federal expenditures. Adoption of this program would give definite promise of early completion of the interstate system, so essential to the national defense and the Nation’s economy, and continued support to the other Federal-aid systems.
The amount of funds required to bring the road systems to adequacy in a reasonable time, and to sustain them in a state of adequacy, is larger. Should the cost be distributed among all vehicles, over the life of the roads, the additional cost per mile of travel would be very small, amounting to about one-quarter of a cent per vehicle-mile. About three-fourths of a cent per vehicle-mile is now being collected in the form of road-user taxes. These amounts may be compared to the cost of owning and operating a vehicle, which for passenger cars is variously estimated at from 8 to 10 cents per mile, and for trucks at correspondingly higher figures. The cost of the highway itself is but a small part of the total cost of motor-vehicle transportation.
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