Public Roads: A Journal of Highway Research, Vol. 28, No. 2

Bostick, T.A.; Brokke, G.E.; Cashell, H.D.; Cope, E.M.; Critz, P.F.; Dimmick, T.B.; French, Alexander; Grieb, W.E.; Johnston, C.M.; Kinter, E.B.; Lewis, R.H.; Lynch, J.T.; Marr, R.A., Jr.; Messer, R.T.; O'Flaherty, Daniel; Olmstead, F.R.; Peck, R.A.; Potter, W.D.; Rex, H.M.; Saal, C.C.; Siess, C.P.; Steele, C.A.; Taragin, Asriel; Teske, W.E.; Timms, A.G.; Viest, I.M.; Vincent, G.S.; Welborn, J.Y.; Werner, George; Wintermyer, A.M.; Woolf, D.O. · 1954 · ROSA P / United States. Government Printing Office

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Summary

This 1954 report by the Bureau of Public Roads estimates the distribution of State highway-user taxes paid by different vehicle types and weight groups in 1952. The study was motivated by the need for highway authorities and legislators to evaluate the equitability of the tax burden across vehicle classes and to compare these contributions against the costs of providing highway services. The total State motor-vehicle tax payments analyzed amounted to $3,088 million, comprising fuel taxes, registration fees, motor-carrier taxes, and miscellaneous fees such as driver’s licenses. The methodology involved aggregating data from 48 States and the District of Columbia, utilizing published *Highway Statistics 1952* for fuel and registration data. A significant challenge was reconciling disparate State registration bases (e.g., gross weight, empty weight, or manufacturer’s rated capacity). The authors developed conversion factors to standardize truck registrations onto a gross-vehicle-weight basis, using a representative sample of 15 States to extrapolate national distributions. To allocate fuel taxes, which depend on travel distance, the study employed visual vehicle classifications derived from traffic counts and origin-destination studies, linking them to estimated fuel consumption rates. Registration and carrier taxes were allocated using average fees and arbitrary weighting factors based on vehicle size and weight classes. The findings reveal that passenger cars constituted 83 percent of registered vehicles and 81 percent of traffic volume but contributed only 65 percent of total user-tax payments. When combined with light trucks, this group accounted for 93 percent of registrations, 89 percent of traffic, and 74 percent of tax revenues. Conversely, medium and heavy trucks and combinations represented only 6 percent of registrations and 10 percent of traffic yet contributed 24 percent of road-user payments. On a per-mile basis, passenger cars and light trucks paid approximately 0.5 cents per vehicle-mile, whereas buses paid 1.6 cents, and truck combinations paid over 2 cents. Specifically, tractor-semitrailers paid 2.1 cents per mile, and truck-trailers paid 2.7 cents. The significance of this study lies in its demonstration that heavier commercial vehicles bear a disproportionately higher tax burden per mile of travel compared to passenger vehicles. This data provides a baseline for assessing the fairness of highway financing structures, highlighting that while passenger vehicles dominate traffic volume, heavy trucks and combinations are the primary contributors to highway funding relative to their usage. The report acknowledges that these are national averages and that individual State variations exist, but the results offer a valid framework for evaluating the relationship between vehicle weight, travel, and tax contribution.

Key finding

Truck-trailer combinations paid 2.7 cents per mile of travel, which is more than five times the 0.5 cents per mile paid by passenger cars, despite representing less than 1 percent of registered vehicles.

Methodology

dataset

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• road geometry

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• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource