Transportation Secretary Peters renewed her call today for a highway program de-emphasizing the use of the federal highway tax and relying more on state and locally imposed congestion pricing as a funding mechanism for transportation projects. She cited estimates that the imposition of special rush-hour tolls along the commuter corridors of the nation’s 100 largest cities could generate $120 billion a year, and argued that raising the gas tax to prevent a looming shortfall in national highway trust fund was not a politically viable option. “If the American people were clamoring for an increase in the gas tax, we would have one by now,” she said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. She argued that congestion pricing would be more acceptable politically, because it would produce the benefit of easing gridlock for commuters and instead of just disappearing into the “black hole” of federal transportation spending. “Americans will pay for convenience,” she said, adding, “this is something we can do very quickly in America.”

Peters said the reliance on the gas tax had spawned a sprawling program that had become “a breeding ground for earmarks” and other politically inspired spending, and that was “wildly inefficient at delivering results that improve commutes or reduce congestion.” She added that “I see us moving away from the gas tax, at some point entirely” because it contributed to the nation’s biggest problems — dependence on foreign oil and air pollution.

She said the overhauled program should focus on three areas, highway safety, the maintenance of the “nationally significant corridors” of the interstate highway system, and the improvement of mobility in traffic-choked areas. Under current conditions, states seeking federal transportation aid “must navigate more than 108 different programs administered by five different agencies within the Department of Transportation,” she said. Peters declined to comment on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s proposal for a gas tax holiday to help offset the spike in gas prices. She said it would be inappropriate for her to express a view of the plan since the White House had not taken a stand on it.