Finding Support for “Green” Transportation Taxes: Should We Look for Supportive Places or Supportive People?

The urban-rural divide is a common trope in social and political discourse in the United States. Policy makers and voters are influenced by this dichotomy and by the common assumption that populations in these geographies think differently about taxation and public spending. The authors examine this assumption using a representative dataset from a nationwide random phone survey containing opinions on transportation taxation from 2010 to 2016. This analysis compares respondents from cities, small towns, and rural locations along socio-economic and transportation-related personal characteristics. Initial exploratory analysis suggests that people from cities are indeed different than those from small towns and rural locations, while people from small towns and rural locations are less dissimilar. City dwellers are slightly more supportive of green transportation taxes than those from smaller towns and rural geographies. In advanced evaluations, however, mixed-effects logistic specifications that control for spatial and temporal variation and specific differences in socio-economics and transportation factors reveal that it may not matter as much where you live as who you are. The analysis shows that no matter where you live, you are likely to support transportation taxes if you are younger, female, Hispanic, and identify as a Democrat.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE10 Standing Committee on Revenue and Finance.
• Authors:
  • Shirgaokar, Manish
  • Agrawal, Asha Weinstein
  • 0000-0003-2328-0263
  • Nixon, Hilary
  • 0000-0001-5378-3473
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 7p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Demographics; Fuel taxes; Large cities; Political factors; Rural areas; Small towns; Socioeconomic factors; Taxation; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Transportation taxes
• Subject Areas: Finance; Policy; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01660148
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-01976
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 15 2018 4:36PM