UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies

Every year, federal, state, and local governments in the U. S. spend tens of billions of dollars to build and maintain roads, enforce traffic laws, put out motor-vehicle fires, lock up motor-vehicle criminals, control motor-vehicle pollution, research new motor fuels and motor-vehicle technologies, and provide other services that support the use of motor vehicles. In this report, I estimate the cost of these goods and services provided by the public sector. I categorize and estimate these public-sector costs separately because governments, unlike private firms, do not charge efficient prices for their goods and services.