Gasoline taxes are questioned a lot because it has obvious positives and negatives that come with it. Focusing on the positive, gas taxes would be able to help the funding towards many bad roads in the US. It was stated that 1 in 5 miles of road needs to be repaired (ASCE, Infrastructure Report Card, 2017). These taxes could also help people be more cautious about driving when they do not need to.
If gas were to be taxed more, there would be other issues that come with it too. Hederman and Goyburu from heritage.org state that "gasoline consumption would not decrease significantly in the short run if the tax were increased" (2004). Many people would not change their driving habits and instead would only be losing money. This would turn people to sacrifice other things to pay for gas.
I believe that it would be a good thing to raise the gasoline taxes. In addition to funding for better roads, it could also help more public transportation be available. This could drastically change how people get places, and it could also help save a lot of money in the long run. It could also cut down on the amount of traffic in bigger cities. The only negatives that come with increasing this tax is that people would have a lower ability to pay for gas, and people would have to get used to other means of transportation instead of driving everywhere without thinking of the implications of fuel emissions.
I would have to disagree with your statement on it being good to have the gasoline taxes rise. Even if gas taxes rise people will still want to use their own cars to be independent and do things when they want to do them and not have to wait for public transportation. They might have to cut back on other things to help pay for their more expensive gas but most people would probably do it.
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