City Lab: 18 Reasons America Should Adopt a Per-Mile Driving Fee
media mentionOregon’s much-anticipated per-mile driving fee, called OReGO, launches today. Instead of paying the normal gas tax embedded in the price of fuel, OReGO drivers will pay 1.5 cents for every mile on the road. The initial public rollout is limited to 5,000 vehicles, but the implications of the program are vast: if all goes well, state and federal leaders might have an answer to the transportation funding crisis that’s hampered American infrastructure for years.
Transportation funding aside, better fuel-efficiency is a great thing, and should be encouraged. So an arguably bigger problem with the gas tax is soaring construction costs. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has estimated that these costs have increased 335 percent since 1972, contributing to much more of the decline in the purchasing power of the gas tax than new fuel-efficiency standards.