Where does all the tax money for transportation "actually" go?

Question

If all of our tax dollars went to the actual building and construction of our highways and roadways, how come we were able to build interstates back in the 1960s without a problem, but now it takes like twenty years to "research" impacts, and they pay people millions to come up with ridiculous answers (referring to the seattle viaduct issue in WA)

Thanks

Answer 1

Lots of issues here. Inflation, for one.  Much more complex environmental issues.  But a lot of money does go to actual construction; consider I-5 widening in Everett.  Very complicated project, with lots of bridge work.

Answer 2

When you're talking about government money it is pretty hard to figure out where the money goes.

Answer 3

The construction of highways is almost at a standstill because of the exorbitant amounts of money state governments demand to get the work done.  We have a killer cloverleaf here that was built in the early 60's and they have not redesigned it or made any pleas for federal money to do anything about it.  A 6th grader can tell you the problem!  Instead of paying for the solution, and you are right about this, they are going to pay consultants to tell us we have a problem.  Pure ignorance!

Answer 4

Just look at downtown London.  The charge to drive your car into downtown London fluctuates with the time of day (amount of traffic congestion).  This is becoming a reasonable answer to traffic congestion in urban centers.  There is not any space to build more roads, and more roads only creates more congestion.  Think of it like this:  The roads in downtown are a commodity in high demand at certain times.  So people will have to pay according to rules of supply and demand.  Seattle is very progressive and it most likely has  the infrastructure (public transport, bike routes) in place to make this plan doable.

Answer 5

60% to the pockets of government officials and 40% to the infrastructure projects.

Answer 6

a lot of things, including Welfare :O

Answer 7

I would say that at least 90% of all taxes wind up in the pockets of politicians and other crooked worthless people. As for why its touted as being neccessary to raise taxes. One word. GREED.