Many people have been surprised to learn that the majority of Americans have no clue that the federal gas tax has not been raised a single cent since 1993. But the news didn’t come as a surprise to everyone: Trey Baker, a researcher at the Texas Transportation Institute, has been collecting data on the issue for some time. Specifically, he and his colleagues have been studying vehicle mileage fees and other user-based fees as an alternative to a flat fuel tax. On the subject, he writes via email:

I found the progression of the discussion in the comments section following the “How Often is the Gas Tax Raised?” article to be extremely interesting. Our public assessment research into vehicle mileage fees (VMT fees, mileage fees, road user charges, etc.) as well as the research of the Minnesota DOT has found that this lack of understanding about the fuel tax is a major barrier in getting people to talk about real reform to the nation’s transportation funding and financing system. Whenever we have gotten people to really look at:

1. How the tax is actually assessed;
2. The tax’s history with regards to increases;
3. Trends in vehicle fuel efficiency and the long term implications of these trends;

We find that people are willing to at least move beyond the old “Alaskan Bridge-to-Nowhere” discussion, which is based on the need to spend existing revenue sources more efficiently, and at least consider the need for some alternative revenue mechanism.

It seems that this topic is getting more and more coverage from transportation related media, and as a fan of the Infrastructurist I wanted to call your attention to a Web site that we here at the Texas Transportation Institute have been putting together that is aimed at collecting research on the topic of vehicle mileage fees. The site started out as a site for the first ever symposium on mileage based user fees, but we are attempting (pending some additional funding) to turn it into a one-stop-shop for all vehicle mileage fee related research.

Are user-based fees and road-use charges a better alternative? Certainly they could work to incentivizing less fuel use and greater efficiency, and could provide a solution to funding all the long-term transportation projects that the U.S. desperately needs. For a thorough discussion of the topic, check out Baker and co-author Ginger Goodin’s full summary here.

Image courtesy of MCT.