ALEXANDRIA, Va. A new study by the American Transportation Research Institute says there are viable alternatives to tolling and privatization for funding future highway construction.

The study also identifies losses exceeding $900 million annually in transportation funding resulting from state and federal fuel tax exemptions, including exemptions granted for transit, school and intercity buses.

The loss from fuel tax exemptions is just one of several implications for future highway funding explored in the study by ATRI, the research arm of the trucking industry.

The research was developed in response to numerous state and federal efforts to pursue tolling and highway privatization as the answer to coping with the nation's transportation funding shortfall.

It is among the first research to propose options to tolling and privatization, and to examine highway funding from a system user perspective.

The study notes that while collection costs for fuel taxes range from 3 percent to less than 1 percent of revenue, ATRI has documented toll collection revenue-to-cost ratios exceeding 21 percent. In other words, it costs more than 20 cents to collect every dollar generated by some tolling systems.

'Every state legislator needs to understand that tolling is not an efficient way to improve transportation,' said one trucking industry association executive.

The study also highlights the threat to rural America posed by the push toward tolling and privatization. Rural corridors lack the necessary population densities and financial base to attract private-sector investors focused on profit.

Yet, these same corridors are critical links in the U.S. highway system, providing essential connectivity between states and metropolitan areas.

The research contends the USDOT mission of providing a seamless transportation network requires holistic funding strategies that assure continued support of rural corridors rather than focusing solely on high-traffic metropolitan routes.

'Pursuing funding strategies that knowingly fragment our national transportation system is simply bad business,' said one trucking logistics executive.

The ATRI study contends the motor fuel tax is the most efficient and equitable method for raising roadway revenues, and it recommends continued use of fuel taxes as the primary strategy for increasing transportation funding for the short- to mid- term.

To meet the increasing needs, ATRI's research recommends increasing the fuel tax in conjunction with elimination of fuel tax exemptions and diversions from the highway trust fund.

The study identifies an additional $10 billion to $38 billion that could be raised in annual revenues for highway infrastructure.

A copy of the study's executive summary is available at www.atri-online.org/research/results/economicanalysis/index.htm, where a copy of the full report also can be requested.