Transportation Economic Trends
Transportation Public Finance Statistics (TPFS)
Government Transportation Revenues
Government transportation revenues come from several sources, including user fees, transportation related taxes, and general revenues. This revenue funds government transportation expenditures on critical activities, like building highways, operating the Nation’s air traffic control system, and maintaining transit facilities.
2022 Year-in-Review (latest available)
- As of June 2024, Transportation Public Finance Statistics (TPFS) replaces the previous Government Transportation Financial Statistics (GTFS). The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) will release preliminary estimates in June in addition to the final annual release in December. This new release increases the timeliness of the statistics by 6 months, reporting preliminary estimates 18 months after the one-year reference period (e.g., data for the 2022 reference period is published in June 2024). The final annual release of TPFS occurs 24 months after the one-year reference period (e.g., data for the 2022 reference period is published December 2024).
- In 2022 federal, state, and local revenues collected and dedicated to transportation programs totaled $555.2 billion (in 2022 dollars) up 33.1 percent from $417.1 billion in 2021.
- Federal transportation revenues accounted for just under half ($251.0 billion) of total transportation revenues collected in 2022. State and local government transportation revenues, including Amtrak, accounted for the remainder ($304.2 billion).
- The President signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) in November 2021 which dedicates $673.8 billion to transportation between 2022 and 2026. For more information on BIL, visit Statistics on Transportation Funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The BTS' TPFS aggregates data from a variety of sources to provide information on transportation-related revenues for all levels of government and for all modes of transportation. Data are also available for government transportation expenditures.
The estimated values include state and local highway revenues and expenditures. BTS estimates the lagging data using linear regression. More information on the estimation process can be found in the User Guide and Technical Documentation on the TPFS home page. Once all data are available, BTS will replace all estimated data elements with actual values. BTS will publish the final TPFS in December.
Total Government Transportation Revenues | Types of Revenue by Level of Government | Types of Revenue by Mode
Total Government Transportation Revenues
Transportation revenue is collected at all levels of government from the Federal and State and Local levels as well as Amtrak. Revenue can be classified as own-source or supporting revenue and can be user-base or other. More on the different types of revenue in the next section below.
Total Government Transportation Revenues | Types of Revenue by Level of Government | Types of Revenue by Mode
Types of Revenue by Level of Government
Government transportation revenue is classified into two categories:
(1) Own-Source Revenue: includes user-based revenue and other revenue earned or directly generated by transportation agencies. Own-source revenue can also have a sub classification of user-based or other.
User-Based Revenue: includes only revenue generated from charges on users of the mode related to their transportation activity.
Other Revenue: revenue that is not user-based.
(2) Supporting revenue: is all other revenue used for transportation purposes, such as general funds or other government revenues.
Borrowing is not considered transportation revenue and is not included in the totals. For additional information and examples of these revenue types, visit our User Guide.
The FAST Act (Pub.L.No.114-94) was signed into law on December 4, 2015. One provision of
that law was an immediate transfer of $51.9 billion from the General Fund to
the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund. This transfer is shown in our
Federal Supporting Revenue for 2016. For more information visit the FHWA Factsheet.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or BIL) was passed on November 15, 2021. It dedicated $90.0 billion to the Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund and $28.0 billion to the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund. Those $118.0 billion in funds show up in the Highway Trust Fund in 2022. For more information, visit our page on Transportation Funding in the BIL.
Total Government Transportation Revenues | Types of Revenue by Level of Government | Types of Revenue by Mode
Types of Revenue by Mode
In the graph below, transportation revenue can be viewed by level of government, transportation mode, and revenue type. Revenues collected by mode, from non-transportation activities but dedicated to transportation (supporting revenue), from taxes and charges levied on transportation activities (own-source revenue) and revenue generated from charges on users of the mode related to their transportation activity (user-based revenue).
Recommended citation
U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transportation Economic Trends, available at www.bts.gov/product/transportation-economic-trends.
