Re: As fuel taxes plummet, states weigh charging by the mile instead of the tank

[Frederick]

Steve Cummings <jth...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:slufs8$b7a$1...@news.dns-netz.com:

> Recall every politician who votes for it. Castrate them with red-hot
> pliers.

But road usage charges — also known as mileage-based user fees, distance-
based fees or vehicle-miles-traveled taxes — are attracting the bulk of
the academic attention, research dollars and legislative activity.

Doug Shinkle, transportation program director at the nonpartisan National
Conference of State Legislatures, predicts that after some 20 years of
anticipation, more than a decade of pilot projects and years of voluntary
participation, making programs mandatory is the next logical step.

“The impetus at this point is less about collecting revenue than about
establishing these systems, working out the kinks, getting the public
comfortable with it, expanding awareness around it,” he said.

Electric car sales in the U.S. rose from just 0.1% of total car sales in
2011 to 4.6% in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
S&P Global Mobility forecasts they will make up 40% of the sales by 2030,
while other projections are even rosier.

Patricia Hendren, executive director of the Eastern Transportation
Coalition, said figuring out how to account for multistate trips is
particularly important in the eastern U.S., where states are smaller and
closer together than those in the West. Virginia’s program, launched in
2022, is already the largest in the nation and will provide valuable
lessons, she said.

Hendren's organization, a 17-state partnership that researches
transportation safety and technology innovations, participated in one of
the earliest pilot projects and eight others since. The biggest hurdle,
she said, is to inform the public about the diminishing returns from the
gas tax that has long paid for roads.

“This is about the relationship between the people who are using our roads
and bridges and how we’re paying for it,” Hendren said. “We’ve been doing
it one way for 100 years, and that way is not going to work anymore.”

Eric Paul Dennis, a transportation analyst at the Citizens Research
Council of Michigan, said the failure of states to convert years of
research into even one fully functional, mandatory program by now raises
questions about whether road usage charging can really work.

“There’s no program design that I have seen that I think can be
implemented at scale in a way that is publicly acceptable,” he said. “That
doesn’t mean that a program can’t be designed to do so, but I feel like if
you can’t even conceive of the program architecture that seems like
something that would work, you probably shouldn’t put too much faith in
it.”

Indeed, a chicken-and-egg dispute over how to proceed in Washington state
has stymied road usage charging efforts there.

Lawmakers passed a bill in April that would have begun early steps toward
a program by allowing collection of motorists’ odometer readings on a
voluntary basis. Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee vetoed the measure, though,
arguing that Washington needs a program in place before starting to
collect citizens’ personal data.

States also must grapple with the social and environmental implications of
their plans for replacing the gas tax, said Asha Weinstein Agrawal,
director of the National Transportation Finance Center at San Jose State
University’s Mineta Transportation Institute.

The institute has conducted national surveys every year since 2010 and
found growing support for mileage-based fees, special rates for low-income
drivers and rates tied to how much pollution a vehicle generates, she
said.

Weinstein Agrawal said public policy, and the way transportation is
funded, often fails to reflect states' growing emphasis on curbing carbon
emissions as a way to deal with climate change.

“To switch over to a system that makes it cheaper to drive a gas guzzler
and more expensive to drive a Prius," she said, “seems both symbolically
problematic and to be sending, in the most literal way, the wrong economic
incentives to people.”

Evan Burroughs said his 85-year-old father, Hank, who drives an electric
car, avoids paying significant vehicle registration fees by participating
in Oregon's program, while Burroughs himself has paid an extra dollar or
two each month for his Subaru Outback.

“To me, that's worth it to be part of the experiment," he said, “and to
know I'm paying my fair share for the roads.”

___

This story was first published on June 25, 2023. It was updated on June
26, 2023, to correct a comment from Douglas Shinkle of the National
Conference of State Legislatures. He said mandatory road usage charging is
the next logical step, not that states need to make the charges mandatory.

John
2 days ago

This is only the beginning. Once they have a device installed on your car
to measure miles, they'll be able to track your vehicle, measure your
speed, use it as evidence in court. And then the insurance companies
will want to get in on the windfall and charge insurance by the mile and
based on where and how you drive. Big Brother will be watching.

James
2 days ago

Not to mention, there will likely be a component within this device that
can shut your car down automatically if you fail to pay parking tickets,
are speeding or fail to pay insurance or inspections. The list will go on
and on!!!

John
2 days ago

What do you think these "plug-in devices" and phone apps that insurances
companies have been hawking for the last 10 years, "To save you money"?
It's literally that.

https://news.yahoo.com/fuel-taxes-plummet-states-weigh-042526446.html

[*Hemidactylus*]

Why the fuck are rando knuckle-dragging dipshits posting braindead shit
into an iOS group. It’s like trash birds shitting on luxury cars.
Resentment?

[*Hemidactylus*]

Oh look at the headers for this rancid turd: alt.politics.trump,
misc.taxes, and talk.politics.guns. Barely functional illiterate scummers.
GEDs maybe like Boebert. Jump off a fucking roof into a pile of rusty nails
covered in shit.

[Chris Schram]

As fuel taxes plummet, states are increasingly considering charging
drivers by the mile instead of the gallon. This is because fuel taxes
are a major source of revenue for state transportation departments, and
as cars become more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles become more
popular, the amount of revenue generated from fuel taxes is declining.

There are a number of different ways that states could implement a
mile-based charging system. One option would be to use GPS tracking to
track the mileage of each vehicle. Another option would be to have
drivers install a device in their car that would record the mileage.

There are a number of advantages to mile-based charging. First, it would
be more fair to drivers of fuel-efficient and electric vehicles, who
currently pay less in fuel taxes than drivers of gas-guzzling vehicles.
Second, it would provide a more stable source of revenue for state
transportation departments, as it would not be affected by changes in
fuel prices or fuel efficiency.

However, there are also some disadvantages to mile-based charging.
First, it would be more expensive to implement and administer than a
fuel tax system. Second, it could be difficult to track the mileage of
vehicles that travel in multiple states. Third, it could be unpopular
with drivers who do not want their mileage tracked.

Overall, mile-based charging is a potential solution to the problem of
declining fuel tax revenue. However, there are a number of challenges
that would need to be addressed before it could be implemented on a
widespread basis.

Here are some additional thoughts on the issue:

Mile-based charging could help to reduce traffic congestion, as drivers
would have an incentive to drive less if they were paying by the mile.
Mile-based charging could also help to encourage the use of public
transportation and other alternative modes of transportation. The
implementation of mile-based charging would likely be a complex process,
and it would need to be carefully designed to ensure that it is fair to
all drivers. It will be interesting to see how states move forward with
this issue in the coming years.questions