The survey has been released amidst a flurry of recent activity among advocates of using a mileage-based user fee as an alternative to the gas tax. State Departments of Transportation met a May 20 deadline to submit grant applications for the Federal Highway Administration's "Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives" (STSFA) program, a $95 million program to demonstrate user fee alternatives authorized by the FAST Act. There has not yet been an announcement of which states have applied and awards are expected to be announced by September of this year.

The findings mark an increase in support among Americans for a user fee system when compared to a similar survey conducted by HNTB in 2014 which found 50 percent support. This rise in favorability coincides with activity at the state level as the state of Oregon has had a live operational road usage charge program since July 2015 and the state of California expects to launch their own program in July 2016. The STSFA program is the most significant commitment to date at the Federal level to exploring user fees as an alternative funding method.

HNTB's America THINKS Transportation Mobility 2016 survey was conducted by Kelton Global among 1,002 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and over between March 14 and March 22, 2016. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent.