A Comparative Study Of Highway Development Mode Between China And America

Under the highway development mode of "Constructing Roads by Loans, Repayment by User Fees",China highway developed quickly in a short period of23years. Until the end of2011, the highway mileage of China is85,000kilometers, ranking first in the world. Under this model, the highway construction units loan from banks and other financial institutions for highway construction financing, and then repay by the collection of road tolls to users. After a certain period of time, the highways open to the public free of charge. However, with the rapid development of highway, highway debt balance has reached more than4.5trillion RMB, and it is growing. The heavy debt burden, high logistics costs contradiction is gradually emerging. The U.S. interstate highway is built by the federal and state funded ratio of9:1; the main source of federal funds is the Highway Trust Fund, which comes from fuel tax. That is say; United States completed the construction of the interstate highway network by fuel taxes. Therefore, the U.S. highway is basically free to users. Subject to the level of economic and social development," Constructing Roads by Loans, Repayment by User Fees " became the inevitable choice for China’s highway development model. However, in this mode, Chinese highway has been developed inappropriately. With the raising level of economic and social development, this model is no longer applicable to Chinese current conditions, so we should make the changes in highway development mode timely. Through a comprehensive analysis of highway development model between China and the United States, on the basis of learning from the experience of U.S., the paper proposes that China shall promptly change the "Constructing Roads by Loans, Repayment by User Fees", and it also proposes the corresponding suggestions.