The bar chart illustrates the proportion of government money investing on roads and transport systems in different nations, namely Italy, Portugal, the UK and USA from 1990 to 2005.
It can be seen that there were downward trends in almost all given countries, except for the USA, with the figure for Portugal being the most dramatic. Additionally, the percentage of money spent on roads transport in Portugal was the dominant group during the period.
In 1990, the percentage of government budget spent on transport and roads in Italy started at about 23%, followed by a slight decrease to 20% over the next five years, before increasing significantly to 24% in 2005 and ending the period with a sharp drop to 19%. In terms of Portugal, in 2006, over 26% of government spending was invested in transport systems, was the dominant group, before witnessing a gradual decrease from 24% in 1995 to 20% in 2005.
Turning to the UK, the percentage of money spent on improving transport systems was twice as low as that in Italy in 1990, at 10%, followed by a moderate decrease to 9% in 1995, before increasing considerably to 12% and a decrease ending to 8% at the end of the period. While the US government spent 11% of total budget in roads and transport in 1996, before witnessing a slight decrease to 10% over the next 5 years, after it rose moderately from 14% in 2000 to 15% in 2005.
