| Road User Fee Pilot Program |
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| How it worked |
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The Road User Fee Pilot Program was a research study designed to examine the technical and administrative feasibility of implementing a per mile fee to possibly replace the current gas tax in the future. During the Pilot Program, the following took place:
- A "pre-pilot" to work out any unexpected issues occurred in the fall of 2005 with 20 volunteers. Volunteers’ cars were equipped with on-board mileage-counting equipment.
- In spring 2006, 260 Pilot Program volunteers in Portland had the on-board mileage-counting equipment added to their vehicles. For a period of one year, volunteers had their mileage read. During the last half of the study, volunteers paid a road user fee equal to 1.2 cents a mile instead of the gas tax.
- Two service stations in the Portland area were equipped with mileage reader devices.
- Pilot participants were asked to fill their vehicles at these participating service stations when convenient.
- When refueling, the on-board mileage counter communicated with the mileage readers placed at the pumps. When the purchase was totaled, the gas tax was deducted automatically and the road user fee was added automatically.
- A federal requirement of the Pilot Program was to test the ability to count separately miles traveled during "rush hour" within a congested area. Some of the pilot volunteers were in a "rush hour" pricing group to test this concept.
- Because the Pilot was a test, many policy options remain for decision-makers, such as charging a lower rate-per-mile for vehicles that achieve a certain fuel efficiency, for motorists that avoid rush hour zones, or for those participating in other environmentally-friendly situations.
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