Gas tax revenues will decline as fuel conservation increases, reducing current funding sources for maintenance and construction of infrastructure. Alternatives such as tolls or weight-mile taxes will also be sensitive to reduced travel. Roads and bridges may handle less traffic and experience less wear-and-tear, but the present maintenance backlog is large and growing.

In addition to revenue constraints, road maintenance and repair will be made more difficult and costly because asphalt is a petroleum-based product. In 2005 road maintenance was hampered in some U.S. localities because of the high cost of asphalt. Concrete, which is currently more expensive than asphalt, is also energy-intensive and will increase in cost as fuel prices climb.