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A majority of Americans believe new transportation projects should be paid for with user fees instead of tax increases, and public-private partnerships should be used to fund high-speed rail projects, according to a recent poll conducted by the Reason Foundation.

Seventy-seven percent of those polled oppose increasing the federal gas tax while 19 percent favor raising the tax, which currently stands at 18.4 cents per gallon. Sixty-five percent of those polled believe the government spends transportation funds ineffectively and 23 percent believe it is spent effectively.

New or improved roads and highways should be paid for by the people driving on them, according to the poll. Fifty-eight percent said roads and highways should be funded by tolls, while 28 percent said new road capacity should be paid for with a tax increase. In terms of transportation spending priorities, 62 percent of poll participants want to prioritize funding for road and highway projects, while 30 percent want to prioritize funding for mass transit projects.

Meanwhile, 55 percent of those polled say the private sector should build high-speed rail systems where they expect riders to pay for it. Thirty-five percent believe the federal and state governments should build high-speed systems.

Finally, 55 percent of the participants support using public-private partnerships to build critical infrastructure projects.

Conducted for the Reason Foundation by NSON Opinion Strategy, the poll surveyed a random sampling of 1,200 adults by telephone between Dec. 3 and 13. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.  

The Reason Foundation, a self-described “public policy think tank,” funded the poll in part through the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation.