General Road and Highway Discussion

[SammyOES2]

You're describing Vehicle Miles of Travel (VMT) charges, Sammy, and that is what will probably replace gas taxes one day.

Oregon is piloting a VMT tax program right now. Interestingly (for me, anyway), there are multiple technologies being used, so if you have concerns about the state having location information about you, you can submit a periodic odometer reading; but higher tech methods could allow for charges to be changed when someone is driving outside of certain areas or even certain times.

VMT charges mean all road users contribute to the upkeep of roads, not just users of roads with volumes which can justify dedicated tolls. They don't account for efficiency (but they could, easily, if that were desired), but then again, if they're about funding roads, they don't need to.

Interesting!

I don't think they have to account for efficiency.  I just meant with the gas tax that it was a side effect that I didn't think was really that bad.  But I agree that in an ideal world incentives for fuel efficiency (which I think should exist) would be disentangled from usage fees for using infrastructure.