We can assure highway travelers that there will also be a surcharge on VMT based upon weight of the vehicle. This is to make the actual impact to the highway infrastructure as well as the highway congestion impact are also included in the replacement tax. If I remember my highway pavement design course, the impact to the highway is a logarithmic impact based on weight, so a 2 ton vehicle causes 4x more impact than a 1 ton vehicle to the pavement.
The gasoline highway tax was a very fair system as it also inherently covered this impact since MPG's are impacted by vehicle weight. And you therefore buy more gas and pay more taxes. This is an indirect carbon tax. Which is a more fair impact to the highways as well as the pollution impact to the atmosphere.
For now I'm not a fan of switching to VMT as it does not address the impact due to carbon.
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Douglas Porter P.E., M.ASCE
Lakewood CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-25-2017 16:43
From: Aaron Frits
Subject: Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)
Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) has grown as a potential candidate to replace the gas tax in many states. Currently Oregon has a voluntary pilot program (OreGO), and a similar program kicked off in 2016 in California. Many other countries also utilize this method to generate infrastructure funding, but only apply the fee on trucks. While a fairer method of taxation than the current per gallon gas tax, VMT has opponents given privacy concerns over the collection of the VMT data from users. What can we, as engineers, do to change the public perception of VMT and advance it as a better alternative to fund highway infrastructure projects
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Aaron Frits P.E., ENV SP, M.ASCE
Road Design Leader
Lawrence KS
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