Two hundred Triangle drivers will be recruited this fall to road-test a satellite-technology system that might be used one day to collect road taxes on every mile we drive — replacing the gas tax on every gallon we buy.
Computers, mounted in volunteers’ cars, will use GPS tracking to count how many miles each car travels in each state.
Participants will receive make-believe state and federal tax bills for their miles. For their time and their opinions, they’ll be paid $895 in real money.
The $16.5 million Road User Charge Study will enlist drivers in six states to determine whether the technology works, and whether Americans would accept a new mileage tax. Volunteers will be asked how they feel about technology that collects information about their driving.
The federal government and 15 states, including North Carolina, launched the study to find a fair, reliable revenue source that can keep pace with the nation’s growing transportation needs.
“The gas tax is not going to be a viable way of funding our highways in the future,” Professor Jon Kuhl of the University of Iowa, who is directing the study, said in an interview. “The national Highway Trust Fund is already going broke, and the situation is going to get worse.”
Gas tax collections are slowing as cars get more miles on each gallon, and as $4 pump prices force Americans to reduce their driving. A few years from now, many Americans might be driving plug-in electric and fuel-cell cars that don’t use any gas at all.
With the $895 bounty and an advertising campaign that will start next week, Kuhl and his team hope to enlist a diverse mix of car owners from the six-county Triangle area. Details are available by phone at 866-363-1975 (toll-free) or online at www.roaduserstudy.org.
After the participants are chosen and trained, their cars will be outfitted with GPS computers. The eight-month road test will start by early December. It will use the satellite technology that drives popular dashboard navigation gadgets.
Each month, the car’s computer will record the number of miles driven in each state, then upload the information to a central billing system.
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter, editor and blogger since 1976, he took over the
Comments
Hope we could join the car
Tue, 07/28/2009 - 01:45 — makemineHope we could join the car show
Best Car
Ridiculous!!
Mon, 02/23/2009 - 12:34 — eshavmI agree with the sentiment already expressed here... There may need to be a shift in the way highways are funded, but it certainly doesn't require the tracking of every single car in the country. At the most, reporting one's miles driven could be an extra section on a Federal tax form, with a national fund collecting all the money and distributing to states by needs and miles of public highways. A catch all tax system that works for everyone is the absolute only way to make this viable without spending more revenue than the program generates, period.
GPS Use
Mon, 10/20/2008 - 14:01 — Dave Ellis (not verified)It seems to me that they are looking to a technological solution to problem that does not really exist.
The only reason that I can see for the GPS requirements is so that the system can determine how many miles you are driving in each state so that each state can obtain its pound of flesh.
If the mileage tax was simply attributed to your own state then all you'd need to do is record your odometer mileage for each vehicle each year on your tax returns. You pay your mileage tax to your home state and let the states/feds argue out any adjustments that may be needed.
That way there's no tracking and no technology requirements.
The alternative seems to be that some people are going to be filling out multiple state tax returns for their mileage tax. Heaven help the poor sod who travels the country.
Remarkably invasive
Tue, 10/07/2008 - 08:08 — Dadof3I'm surprised privacy advocates aren't up in arms over this. I'm not a privacy fetishist, but jeesh, who wants the government tracking this kind of data?
Just raise the gas tax!
Tue, 10/07/2008 - 01:32 — dmccallJust raise the gas tax! Aren't we trying to deter people from using so
much foreign-made gas? Aren't the lower gas-mileage cars in fact the
heavier vehicles that put more wear and tear on the highways?
In fact, what would be more fair is to repeal the property tax on
vehicles and have the roads solely funded by the gas tax. Someone who
owns 5 collector cars isn't putting any more strain on the road system
than one with a single car.
OK ok some cars are getting vastly better mileage than others,
especially with plug-in hybrids and alternate fuels around the corner.
It seems like there is a perfectly effective way to collect this data:
check the odometer during the annual state inspection. Oh wait, this is
ALREADY being done. No need for a huge hardware investment.