[twoodfin]

I was careful to say "highway system", by which I meant the IHS. Yes, local governments fund local roads out of property and other local taxes, but a) Everyone depends on their own local roads, even if they never drive, walk or bike on them, not so mass transit b) Local gas taxes are hard to make work because it's possible and tempting for gas stations to locate in the lowest taxed locality.

Even so, your own link says 50% of state and local roads are funded with user fees. The IHS number is around 70%, even with 1/6 of the gas tax redirected to public transit. If you doubled the user fees and eliminated all other sources of funding, the IHS and the state/local road system would still thrive. Not so most public transit.