Gas tax pop quiz: how long since it's been raised?

Usually, when we talk about a gas tax around these parts, it's because someone – the CEO of Ford, maybe, or just us – brings it up as a way to create demand for more fuel efficient vehicles. A higher gas tax could also help fix the national infrastructure while it makes people think twice about ignoring vehicle running costs.

So, we may talk about the gas tax more than the average American, but how much do we really know about the tax as it's implemented today? According to a poll conducted last year by Building America's Future, Public Opinion Strategies, and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, we don't know a whole heck of a lot. Think you know better? Answer the question below and then follow us past the jump to see if you "know" as much as most Americans about the gas tax.

[Source: Infrastructurist | Image: El Caganer - C.C. License 2.0]

If you answered that the tax is raised automatically each year, you're like 60 percent of Americans (from both major political parties, from all around the country). The correct answer, though, is that the feds have been taking just 18.4 cents of each gallon since 1993. As Infrastructurist put it, "in a colossal error of judgment, the government neglected to index it for inflation. So it's worth even less now than it was then." Before we think about the tax in the future, don't you think we need to understand the past?