DC Streets Blog covers AAA’s "Highway Trust Fund money should be reserved just for highways." And besides their comments I have a few of my own: Over the years we have bolstered up the Highway Trust Fund from the General Budget and other non-user fees because it did more then just car centric highways. Now someone think it would be a great idea to cut out 1.5% of the spending because of the lack of "user fees" but at the same time assumes that they get to keep all the extra non-user fee funding (~50% from memory) that have went into the fund. I say they can have all their user fees and we’ll take all the funding that has come from the General Fund, But that is just the point; by having one funding source that encourages: being more context sensitive in design, a greater benefit for all, cars get more money for roads and everyone else suffers a bit less when roads are built.
Since all this junk is coming from AAA mid-Atlantic I have a better idea for you to pursue: You are aware that these so called "user fees" do not go back to the users who paid for them but are redistributed through a formula, So essentially drivers in Maryland are paying for highways in Texas. This redistribution made sense to build the Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways but now that we are trying to increase capacity of that system the redistribution of funds no longer makes sense. If AAA wants more Federal money in Maryland for roads, this would do far more then cutting TE funding alone could ever do.
https://dc.streetsblog.org/2010/12/13/aaa-gets-an-earful-from-members-about-equality-for-bikes/oldId.20101214102441930
Biking in Baltimore