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PRESS RELEASE

AAA Urges Congress to Block Tolling on Interstates

11 April 1997

AAA Urges Congress to Block Tolling on Interstates

    WASHINGTON, April 10 -- AAA today urged Congress not to allow
additional tolling facilities on the nation's Interstate Highway System.
    Appearing at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on
Transportation, Frederick L. Gruel, vice chair of AAA's Public & Government
Relations Committee, said: "Motorists have paid hundreds of billions in
federal gas taxes to support the Interstate Highway System.  Now, they are
being asked to pay again with a toll."
    The Clinton Administration has submitted to Congress the National Economic
Crossroads Transportation Efficiency Act which would allow states to impose
new tolls on interstate highways.
    AAA believes that if Congress adopts the administration's toll proposal
for interstates, it could destroy the user fee structure that has brought the
nation the best and safest highway system in the world.
    "Telling Americans they have to pay tolls on interstates they have already
paid for is not their idea of freedom of mobility," said Gruel, who is also
president and CEO of the AAA New Jersey Automobile Club.
    AAA surveys consistently find more than 70 percent of drivers oppose
tolling.  Additional tolls on the interstates would be a form of double
taxation.  In addition, tolling would significantly aggravate congestion and
slow traffic movement.
    Tolling is an inefficient method of collecting taxes.  Fifteen percent of
toll revenues are needed to fund the collection process while only one percent
of motor fuel taxes are devoted to that purpose.
    AAA is a not-for-profit federation of 99 motor clubs with more than 1,000
offices providing its more than 39 million members in the United States and
Canada with travel, insurance, financial and auto-related services.

SOURCE  American Automobile Association

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CONTACT: Bill Jackman of the American Automobile Association,
202-942-2050