Mileage-Based User Fees—Defining a Path toward Implementation (Phase 1: Identifying a Research Strategy)

Project Description

As the first part of a two-phase research effort by the University Transportation Center for Mobility, the researchers explored alternative financing systems to the fuel tax, specifically mileage-based user fee systems, at the state and federal levels. Mileage-based user fees, at the most basic level, would levy a fixed fee on each mile driven within an implementing jurisdiction. A mileage-based user fee system would address many of the long-term threats facing the fuel tax, mainly in that:

• revenue from a mileage-based fee system would not decline as average vehicular fuel efficiencies increase;
• revenues can be captured from vehicles that do not require fossil fuels to operate; and
• mileage-based fees are tied directly to use and can be structured to send appropriate market signals to drivers so as to maximize the efficient use of the nation's roadway system.

While mileage-based fee systems have been tested by the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Puget Sound Regional Council, and a national assessment is currently being conducted by the University of Iowa, there has been a lack of research evaluating the potential strategies that might be employed in deploying these systems at the state and/or federal level. This Phase 1 report covers an evaluation of the mileage-based user fee technology configurations currently in use and a study of the user fee frameworks in place.

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