This study evaluated the effectiveness and equity of a fee for vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for passenger vehicles in Nevada. In the evaluation of the fee's effectiveness, the collection capabilities, as well as the fee's impact on the number of miles users drove, were considered. Equity was evaluated by considering the impact of the VMT fee on various population groups on the basis of socioeconomics, demographics, household type, location, and ownership of fuel-efficient vehicles. To estimate the impacts on various VMT fees, a linear regression model was developed with the use of data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey, which provided a mechanism to estimate VMT in Nevada as a function of the cost to drive, among other characteristics. The effectiveness and the equity of two alternative VMT fees were compared with the existing fuel tax system. These fees were calculated on the basis of the average fuel efficiency of vehicles in Nevada and the historical revenue from the state fuel tax. In general, a VMT fee of 3.3 cents per mile seemed to be more effective than both the existing fuel tax and a VMT fee of 2.91 cents per mile. Although the 3.3 cents per mile fee had a slightly greater impact on various population groups, its equitable distribution of the tax burden among 71.1% of households created a small average cost increase of just 0.37% per household. Thus, a 3.3 cents per mile fee would provide the necessary revenue without significantly affecting Nevada households.
The AASHTO software Safety Analyst is a state-of-the-art tool with significant capabilities and advanced analytical methods for comprehensive analysis and management of highway safety. However, this tool does not provide visualization capabilities. To address that limitation, this study proposes a visualization system for Safety Analyst that provides graphical displays, including location and color-coded information for each module. In addition, the system generates charts, which have various degrees of resolution and aggregation; tables; and a report summarizing safety performance measures. The system can use Google Maps or ESRI ArcGIS to generate the graphical displays. The advantage of using Google Maps is its simplicity; in contrast, the ArcGIS display provides additional modeling and computing capabilities of the GIS framework. All displays are very intuitive and can be customized according to user needs. Because the user can see the locations of every specific site, the displays facilitate analysis as well as the decision-making process. The visualization system interacts with Safety Analyst so that the user can access all tools and data throughout the entire modeling and analysis process.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.