Money for roads : key to the strong box.

The United States spends $36 billion a year for con-struction, maintenance, and operation of all of its roads. On a constant dollar basis, the U.S. now spends on roads half what it did ten years ago per passenger-mile or ton-mile of travel. As a result, road conditions have deteriorated. There are several new national goals which can be used to sup-port efforts to improve road funding. The key to the federal financial strong box is our ability to link highway improvement with such national goals for the covering.