Will We Pay by the Miles We Ride?
Monday, January 26th, 2009Colorado is studying a proposal to charge a fee for every vehicle mile driven/ridden. How likely is this to happen?
The short answer is that it won’t happen any time soon. Republicans in the legislature are working to remove this particular option from the study, and Democrats don’t appear to be strongly committed to it.
The long answer is that some day, years in the future, it might.
Let’s face it, as hybrid and electric cars gain popularity, they will not be paying their fair share for upkeep of the roads solely from purchase of gasoline. Plus, even today we don’t have the money to maintain roads adequately. Obviously something has to give.
Clearly, if we go the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) route it must be set up so that Hummers, RVs, and semis pay more than motorcycles. That is an absolute. Our bikes don’t do anything near the damage to the road bed that the big boys do.
But why not just charge a fee determined by the weight of the vehicle. As with the gas tax, we’d pay less and the big boys would pay more. The inequity there, of course, is that it would be unfair to those who have big vehicles but don’t drive them much. Think of your grandmother. She’d pay as much as someone driving the same vehicle but putting 10 times as many miles on theirs. Still, I’m sure we could work something out to make it equitable.
VMT, on the other hand, would be a real issue. First, you’d have to put GPS units on every vehicle. That might not be hard with new ones but are we really going to retrofit ALL old vehicles? Unlikely. Second, I’m willing to bet that there are folks out there with the technical and mechanical ability to jimmy the GPS so it doesn’t report the actual miles driven. A new cottage industry just waiting to be born!
I don’t think VMT is the answer. Still, I’m not sure I go along with the guys trying to get it removed from the study. It may have merit down the road, some day.
Biker Quote for Today
Less talk, more riding.
