By Jon Schmitz
Congress should get rid of fuel taxes and move toward a system that charges road users for the miles they travel, a leading national research organization said Wednesday.
A report by the RAND Corp. explored several different mechanisms for switching to a vehicle-miles-traveled fee, ranging from having motorists self-report their odometer readings to sophisticated onboard devices that track where and how far a driver goes.
A growing body of transportation experts, including two commissions established by Congress, has concluded that the per-gallon gasoline taxes that currently fund the lion’s share of highway budgets are obsolete and inadequate.
The 18.4-cent federal gas tax hasn’t been increased since 1993, and the advent of more fuel-efficient and alternative-fuel vehicles has further eroded that revenue source, causing the federal Highway Trust Fund to become insolvent.
"Failure to raise fuel taxes in recent years to keep pace with inflation and improved fuel economy has created significant transportation funding shortfalls at the federal and state levels," said Paul Sorensen, lead author of the RAND report.
"The prospect of more fuel-efficient conventional vehicles and alternative-fuel vehicles in the coming decades – though clearly beneficial in terms of the environment and energy security – threatens to make funding challenges worse. Shifting from fuel taxes to mileage-based road use fees would help to overcome this problem, and there are several promising options for implementing such a shift."
Since 1980, the total number of vehicle miles traveled in the United States has doubled but fuel consumption has increased only 50 percent, RAND reported. Charging by miles driven would place the burden for maintaining roads and bridges on those who use them most.
…
Read more: https://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10042/1035032-28.stm#ixzz0fdMUgI7M
oldId.20100215141707925
Biking in Baltimore