{"id":7753,"date":"2015-06-16T13:05:03","date_gmt":"2015-06-16T17:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myparkingsignblog.com\/blog\/?p=7753"},"modified":"2025-02-21T08:07:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T13:07:20","slug":"oregon-debuts-first-pay-per-mile-driving-tax-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/oregon-debuts-first-pay-per-mile-driving-tax-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon debuts first pay-per-mile driving tax in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

OReGO, a new pilot program in Oregon, is attempting to change the way road and bridge infrastructure is funded, reports the Portland Business Journal<\/a>. The Oregon Road Usage Charge will charge drivers on a per-mile basis, monitoring drivers’ use of roads, and charging a fixed fee per mile driven. Cars will be provided with mile-tracking technology that will also be able to note whether roads are public, private or out-of-state.<\/p>\n

\"Siuslaw

Oregon is becoming the first state in the union to turn to a Vehicle Miles Traveled tax to fund its transportation needs. Image from Kirt Edblom<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

The state’s department of transportation selected three companies to launch the program and issue a mile-tracking device which plugs into cars\u2019 computers in order to collect and submit \u201cmileage and tax information to the state.” The program will enroll up to 5,000 volunteers and will begin July 1. The volunteers agree to pay 1.5 cents per mile traveled on public roads, instead of the gas tax.<\/p>\n

While the state\u2019s program is the first of its kind in the U.S., the debate over\u00a0a gas tax versus a tax on VMT, or vehicle miles traveled, is not new. The gax tax hasn\u2019t been raised in decades, but at the current rate, it\u00a0doesn’t come close to\u00a0covering the repair and maintenance of the country\u2019s ailing roads. “We know in the future, our ability to pay for maintenance and repair… will be severely impacted if we continue to rely on the gas tax,” Shelley Snow of the Oregon Department of Transportation told U.S. News & World Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clearly, funds are needed, but drivers disagree on how to raise them. Under VMT pricing, for example, gas-guzzling SUVs would pay the same amount as fuel-efficient hybrid or electric vehicles on a per-mile basis, raising questions about the equitability of the charges and about how much damage different kinds of vehicles inflict on infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Proponents of VMT charging, like Jim Whitty, who created the Oregon program, claim that the system is fair to everyone involved: \u201c[D]rivers of fuel-efficient vehicles bristle at the idea that people who pollute more would get a better deal. The fact is, what sold the Oregon legislature on the VMT fee was the idea that it promotes fairness and requires all drivers \u2014 even those with electric cars \u2014 to pay for the infrastructure they use,\u201d Whitty explained<\/a> to Streetsblog in 2013.<\/p>\n

Will VMT taxes better serve the state compared to the gas tax? \u201cFuel consumption used to be a reasonably good proxy for road use, but it isn\u2019t anymore,\u201d explained Whitty. \u201cCharging people directly for their use of the roads makes more sense. If revenues go down, it will be because people are driving less, and therefore creating less wear and tear on the roads, as well as less demand for system expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The VMT program has its detractors, too. “This program targets hybrid and electric vehicles, so it’s discriminatory,” Patrick Connor, a Beaverton, Oregon resident who has been driving an electric car since 2007, told U.S. News & World Report<\/a>. In\u00a0a recent editorial on Grist.org,<\/a>\u00a0journalist Ben Adler outlined\u00a0reasons to forgo the VMT tax in favor of raising the gas tax: \u201cA VMT tax makes all users pay equally for their usage if you define usage in the narrow sense of miles traveled. But drivers of gas guzzlers are using, and abusing, public goods such as roads and air far more than drivers of efficient cars are.”<\/p>\n

Learn more about the program online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OReGO, a new pilot program in Oregon, is attempting to change the way road and bridge infrastructure is funded, reports the Portland Business Journal. The Oregon Road Usage Charge will charge drivers on a per-mile basis, monitoring drivers’ use of roads, and charging a fixed fee per mile driven. Cars will be provided with mile-tracking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[577],"tags":[1035,181,642,1079,1080],"class_list":["post-7753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transportation-2","tag-electric-car","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-fuel-tax","tag-green-vehicle","tag-hybrid-vehicle"],"yoast_head":"\nOregon debuts first pay-per-mile driving tax in the U.S. - MyParkingSign Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OReGO, a new pilot program in Oregon, is attempting to change the way road and bridge infrastructure is funded, reports the Portland Business Journal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/oregon-debuts-first-pay-per-mile-driving-tax-u-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oregon debuts first pay-per-mile driving tax in the U.S. - MyParkingSign Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OReGO, a new pilot program in Oregon, is attempting to change the way road and bridge infrastructure is funded, reports the Portland Business Journal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/oregon-debuts-first-pay-per-mile-driving-tax-u-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MyParkingSign Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parkingsigns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-16T17:05:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-21T13:07:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Siuslaw-Bridge-Florence-Oregon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katy B. 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