Several states.... are studying whether to scrap the gas tax and replace it with pay-by-the-mile user fees, effectively turning the road network into another public utility.
Oregon is finishing a fascinating yearlong study with 280 volunteers who equipped their cars with Global Positioning System tracking devices.
Every time they filled up at two specially equipped stations, per-mile user fees were added -- and the gas tax deducted -- right on the receipt.
A similar $16.5 million study of 2,700 drivers in Austin, Baltimore, Boise, San Diego, eastern Iowa and North Carolina's Research Triangle is set to begin next year.
Motorists will continue to pay gas taxes, but researchers at the University of Iowa will gauge driver responses to a monthly invoice -- not much different than a cellphone bill -- detailing actual miles driven and what they might have paid in per-mile fees.
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