Cars getting too fuel efficient....tax on driving

The Smog check in CA will report the ODO reading to DMV. All they have to do is to change the Smog check to annually instead of bi-annually.

 

Every now and then a rumor will surface that the federal government is planning to do that as well.

 

Make no mistake, this tax will be added to the gas tax. Then get ready for a special electric vehicle tax. Meanwhile, the billions obtained by the gas tax are being spend on exactly what? Few question whether the decaying highway is a lack of funds overall or due to non-transportation expenses taking away all the money from transportation infrastructure.

 

I sure think you are right. They are going to tax the hell out of us no matter what we do. We are in a no win situation anyway we go.

 

So they'll tax residents to pay for the miles they drive, but not other people driving from out of state?

 

Only for lack of an presently enforceable way of doing so. We can be sure that CA gvmt. minds are focused on getting a "fair" tax on those freeloaders. FL figured out how to get into the pockets of out of staters with a "bed tax".

 

If it is odometer based then CA-registered vehicles would also be taxed for out of state miles driven.

If we generally move towards road-use based fees, how to avoid facing the fact that vehicle weight really matters? I have read that road damage scales to the fourth power of weight, but that sounds kinda high.

 

So if you can't afford a new car and are driving an old pick up truck that gets 10 miles to the gallon, they would get taxed the same as a Hybrid/Electric vehicle. Better watch out for some pretty unhappy California residents .

 

Especially in Texas...where their wallet might be recovering

 

I would be ok with the miles driven tax if they included a multiplier for the weight of the vehicle,i.e. miles driven * weight in tons = tax

 

It should be a tax based on what you drive vs what you could drive. If someone wants to drive a huge Dodge pickup that never used it as a pickup vs a smaller more fuel efficient one then they should be taxed on the difference in mileage. If the larger vehicle gets 14mpg and the smaller gets 20mpg then tax them on the difference-$500/year x mpg difference. If they are driving something that large that means disposable income and they can afford it.

 

Then pay it monthly, or weekly as you would do now with fuel excise. They can add it to whatever system is used to pay tolls. Use an attached account to pay the fee. All easy, electronic processing already dealing with large amounts of money.

Odometer-based billing would be easy. It's not perfect, but it's better than fuel taxation and once it's in the hand-wringing about fuel efficiency and plug-ins can stop. In the short term it would make hybrids and PEVs less economical, but I think the ugly truth ultimately produces better results.

 

I believe that it's relative to the construction of the road and the fourth power really comes in when you are driving in excess of the designed supported weight. So a semi driving on the Interstate does a lot less damage than one driving on a residential street, but on the other hand the Interstate costs a lot more per mile to build and maintain than does a residential street. In many cases the effective cost difference between a 2,500lb subcompact and a 4,000lb minivan or SUV would be negligible. And in states with harsh winter climates a lot of damage is caused simply by freeze and thaw.

To be completely accurate you'd need detailed GPS tracking so you can price each section of road driven. Lots of data there, but the pricing math would be relatively simple.

 

I've heard the same, all the way back of a freshman engineering overview. But not having taken the mechanical or civil engineering path, I can't verify it.

Note that this function is so strong that, compared to heavy trucks, even the heaviest passenger cars and SUVs cause negligible roadbed damage. But they still require lane space, so a flat per-mile congestion charge should be sufficient.

 

It is just mind boggling to me why something so naturally simple and effective must be made so incredibly and destructively convoluted.

Charge the tax on the fuel. Physics dictates that big heavy things are going to take more fuel than lightweight things. Likewise, inefficient vehicles are going to take more fuel than efficient things. All incentives are to be efficient and the max payoff goes to those making the best decisions. Make sure the tax is for all fuels (electric, gas, H2, squirrels in cages, etc.). Balance for pollution contribution and energy content as determined by legislative priorities. Adjust the tax to meet the revenue requirements. Since it is a point of sale, enforcement and fairness are straightforward. Done.

 

Taking a look at the proposed 5 cents/mile in CA:
EPA says average car goes 15,000 miles/yr (why they say this, I do not know - real number is about 11,500 per yr per UMich).
But OK take EPA number, and say 15000 mi per year at avg. 25 MPG in CA that's $315/yr gas tax.
But the proposed $0.05/mile is $750/yr for 15,000 miles, so these guys actually want to double it....sort of like going to $1/gallon state gaso tax in CA.

Go for it CA: PA and some other states will catch up to you unless you increase tax. Seriously, my state VA would go to per mile rate if other states go that way too...voters here hate the thought of Prii escaping $20/yr bucks gaso tax (we only have 11 cents/gallon tax). VA just reduced gaso tax to make sure high MPG cars were not cheating the system.