{"id":182013968,"date":"2010-10-08T15:26:08","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T15:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=182013968"},"modified":"2010-10-08T15:26:08","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T15:26:08","slug":"miles-not-gallons-could-be-key-to-road-upkeep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=182013968","title":{"rendered":"Miles Not Gallons Could Be Key to Road Upkeep"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emily Badger
\nThe fuel efficiency of cars in America has been steadily improving for years, and this is, undeniably, a good thing. It turns out, however, that we\u2019ve built into our transportation system a terrible, inherent contradiction: As we need less gas to get from point A to point B, less revenue is generated by the gas tax that paves the road between those two places.
\nAmerica\u2019s transportation system is crumbling \u2014 a new report out this week paints the picture in particularly grim detail \u2014 and the advancements we cheer in hybrid technology and electric batteries are going to make it increasingly difficult to fix things.
\nPart of the problem, says Jeff Shane, is treating the gas levy as a sin tax, an intentionally self-destructing fee placed on products (cigarettes, tanning beds) in the hopes that people will eventually stop using them (and with the understanding that their associated revenue will dry up). Of course, this doesn\u2019t work too well if you actually need all those pennies to build something.
\n\u201cTying the funding of our transportation system to a tax levied on a commodity, the consumption of which we\u2019re trying to discourage, is probably not the best way to go,\u201d said Shane, a partner at the Hogan Lovells law firm in Washington and a former undersecretary for policy at the Department of Transportation. He directed a transportation conference at the University of Virginia\u2019s Miller Center, which led this week to the new report, \u201cWell Within Reach: America\u2019s New Transportation Agenda.\u201d
\nWhat\u2019s needed now is not a higher gas tax, but a whole new way of looking at how we pay our fair share for using public roads. The report\u2019s authors home in on what has become the consensus favorite solution of transportation wonks. We shouldn\u2019t fill road coffers according to how much gas we buy, but how many miles we drive.
\n
\nThe gas tax has ceased to function in the way it was originally intended \u2014 as a user fee (by sparing us their tail-pipe emissions, this means those 50-mile-per-gallon Prius drivers are also not really paying for their full use of common roads). Today, the most accurate measure of use is what\u2019s known as Vehicle Miles Traveled.
\nThe technology currently exists \u2014 and has been tested in some pilot programs \u2014 to upload your odometer reading at, for instance, a fixed location like a gas station. Or perhaps, Shane suggests, the data could be remotely accessed by Bluetooth and sent to drivers as a bill.
\n\u201cYou would just get used to seeing that bill,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would be like a utility bill. It would be your driving bill.\u201d
\nMany people, he concedes, are spooked by the concept because they fear VMT could represent another government intrusion into private data, enabling Big Brother to track where you are and where you\u2019ve been going. But Uncle Sam doesn\u2019t need to know you went last night to a casino \u2014 just that you drove 5 miles to get there.
\n\u201cI tend to be a little skeptical of that [concern] given the fact that government already knows every time you use your credit card, every time you go through a toll both,\u201d Shane said. \u201cBut the fact is it doesn\u2019t have to be \u2018Big Brother.\u2019\u201d
\nA VMT fee could maintain privacy, he says, while still giving policymakers greater flexibility than currently exists with the gas tax to encourage beneficial driving behavior.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s such a blunt instrument, it doesn\u2019t help you manage demand at all,\u201d he said of the gas tax. \u201cThe beauty of VMT is not that it\u2019s a less visible tax, but that it can be calibrated.\u201d
\nThe fee could be adjusted for the weight of your vehicle (heavy trucks are, in a way, greater \u201cusers\u201d of the highway system than are motorcycles), or according to the time of day you travel. Innovative toll systems that charge variable rates in off-peak and rush hours have been popular with many drivers, Shane points out, because they manage traffic in a way that gets everyone around more efficiently. A calibrated VMT could have the same effect.
\nThe Miller Center report, co-chaired by a pair of former transportation secretaries, highlighted a litany of other transit imperatives, from high-speed rail to more reliable air travel. But everything starts, Shane said, with the funding question.
\n\u201cThis is the issue, if we don\u2019t solve this issue, we can basically forget about all the others,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout a sustainable stream of investment funding, we\u2019re going nowhere. That\u2019s what\u2019s so frustrating to so many of us.\u201d
\nhttps:\/\/www.miller-mccune.com\/politics\/miles-not-gallons-could-be-key-to-road-upkeep-23683\/<\/a>oldId.20101008152608623<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emily Badger The fuel efficiency of cars in America has been steadily improving for years, and this is, undeniably, a good thing. It turns out, however, that we\u2019ve built into our transportation system a terrible, inherent contradiction: As we need less gas to get from point A to point B, less revenue is generated … <\/p>\n

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