The State of California needs 5,000 volunteers to participate in the Road Charge Pilot Program, a free study that could change how drivers pay for using the state’s roads, currently through a gas tax.
The study will evaluate a system that allows drivers to pay for maintenance and repairs on roads according to how many miles the drivers travel on them. Currently, drivers pay for this service through the gas tax.
“The gas tax is outdated and no longer capable of meeting all of our future transportation-revenue needs,” Will Kempton, executive director of the California Transportation Commission, said. “The pilot is an excellent opportunity to study road charging and should provide the Legislature with the data it needs to better determine whether and how this idea might work in California.”
When the pilot program ends, the California State Transportation
Agency will issue a report on its findings to the Legislature, the
Road Charge Technical Advisory Committee, and the California
Transportation Commission. The commission then will present its recommendations to
the Legislature, which will consider whether to implement the new pay-as-you-go road-funding system.
