Public Perception of Mileage-Based User Fees

This paper explores the feasibility and sensitivity of a mileage-based road usage charge (RUC) as an alternative to the gas tax. The specific purpose is to evaluate factors that could be considered when setting a charge to account for the complex makeup of statewide motor fleets, and to consider the diversity of household driving behaviors and experiences. The researchers considered a range of potential parameters before choosing to focus on fuel type and fuel efficiency. If based on annually adjusted efficiency quantiles, a parameterized RUC could prevent revenue erosion over time. Formulas based on these parameters were compared with the current fuel excise tax and a flat RUC. Distributional effects of parameters were assessed for urban, mixed, and rural household categories, and for vehicles of different fuel types. Results show that households in urban tracts tend to pay slightly more under all formulations, and households in mixed and rural tracts pay less compared with an excise-based gas tax. In addition to changes across regions of a state, the method allows examination of the groups within these categories. Research found that adjusting for fuel efficiency reduced the change in incidence between urban, mixed, and rural census tracts, and between fuel types, that results from moving to a flat RUC. Fuel type parameters resulted in only small differences from the flat rate RUC because of low alternative fuel penetration in most states. This may change over time depending on the rate of integration of alternative fuels into the passenger car fleet.

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the Equity Effects of Adding Additional Parameters to a Mileage-Based Road Usage Charge for Seven States

Schroeckenthaler¹,

Fitzroy²

2019

“…Studies on these pilot programs suggest that many participants had a more positive view of the mileage-based tax after experiencing them ( 2 , 13 ). However, introducing a VMT tax still faces public acceptance challenges, including the privacy issue and higher administration cost of installing the tracking device ( 14 , 15 ).…”

Section: Policy Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implication of Replacing the Federal and State Fuel Taxes with a National Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax

Wang

Miao

2018

A vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax is often proposed to replace fuel taxes for financing the nation’s highway and road network. In this paper, we investigate households’ driving response to driving cost changes depending on their vehicle choices. Using the empirical estimates, we simulate the vehicle usage, tax burdens, and total tax revenues generated under a possible nationwide revenue-neutral flat VMT tax. Our results confirm that, compared with the current gasoline tax, a revenue-neutral flat VMT tax can be a more stable tax revenue source. We estimate that a 50% increase in average miles per gallon would lead to a 28% decrease in the total revenues raised by the current gasoline tax, while the same amount of increase in fuel economy would increase the VMT tax revenues by 4.4 % (all relative to the 2009 baseline). In the meantime, we find no significant difference between the two types of tax in their total revenues, when the pre-tax gasoline prices fluctuate by different magnitudes. A VMT tax would be slightly more regressive than the gasoline tax, but the difference is negligible. Overall, our simulation shows that VMT tax could serve as a viable alternative to gasoline taxes.

“…Generally, the main constraint for each implementation step is the acceptability of road users and society in general. The key factors for toll acceptance are a transparent use of toll revenues within the road sector (24), ensuring the privacy of users, and the perception of equity (25). In particular, the spatial equity principle applied to road pricing will imply that differences in the generalized cost of travel (including tolls) between different origin-destination pairs should be modest (26).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Matching Funding, Mobility, and Spatial Equity Objectives in a Networkwide Road Pricing Model

Pons-Rigat

Saurí

Turró

2017

A review of the pricing and funding model for interurban roads in Catalonia, Spain, is timely because of the forthcoming finalization of toll concessions and the decrease in road taxes. This paper proposes a comprehensive policy approach for a new networkwide road pricing model to simultaneously deal with financial sustainability, mobility management, and spatial equity. A multiobjective perspective involving multiple trade-offs is required. The rationale for these trade-offs is analyzed and a diagnosis of the Catalan road network is performed on the basis of a revenues–costs matrix, which is built on a deep study of revenues and costs for the interurban network disaggregated by type of vehicle and class of road. From this matrix, a consistent road pricing model for the complete interurban road network is drawn and feasible implementation paths are defined. The resulting pricing scheme is focused on the road operation. Charges cover maintenance, operation, and external costs of the whole interurban road network, whereas the fixed costs of road development would be financed by the public budget. In this way, road charges and fuel taxes are complementary and simultaneously cover the full social costs of road transport. Then a two-part tariff is set such that a lump sum charge covers the costs related to second-class roads and a unit tariff per distance is charged on motorways. Alternative implementation paths from the status quo to the proposed model are then set by considering technological feasibility and other social and juridical constraints.