[sustran] Road users' tax

[Todd Litman]

At 09:00 AM 7/15/98 +0800, Ramon wrote:
>>
>>According to a news article in today's papers, the Phil. government
>>is considering a road user's tax as one way to increase revenues and
>>decrease the government's projected budget deficit. Can you refer me
>>to readings on the effective of this tax and how it should be
>>effectively charged? Thanks.
>>Ramon
>>

I strongly suggest that this fee be related to vehicle use, either by
tolling to charge for driving on a particular road, by a vehicle-kilometer
charge (based on odometer readings), or by increasing fuel taxes. The
optimal charge per vehicle type can be determined by a roadway "cost
allocation" study. The 1997 Federal Highway Cost Allocaction Study
(www.ota.fhwa.dot.gov/hcas/final) is a good example.

Road tolling has become quite sophisticated, using electronic toll
collection. This may be one of the best applications of intellegent
transportation system technology. For information you may want to request a
copy of "Traffic Technology Interational" (traffic at ukintpress.com), which
has ads for many producers of this equipment.

A kilometer charge has many benefits over fuel taxes, because it can be
taylored to each type of vehicle, based on weight, number of axles, use,
etc., and because it causes a far greater reduction in vehicle use (over
the long term people respond to fuel taxes primarily by purchasing more
fuel efficient vehicles, there is little reduction in vehicle use compared
with the same charge applied as a kilometer charge.) A kilometer charge can
be implemented by simply prorating existing vehicle registration fees by
mileage. It requires an annual "odometer audit," which means that a public
official or certified business checks the the vehicle odometer for
tampering and records its reading.

A fixed vehicle charge is unfair, since it lower-mileage vehicles pay more
than their fair share of costs, effectively subsidizing the road costs of
higher mileage vehicles, it is regressive, since wealthier people tend to
drive more per vehicle, and because it does not pepresent a marginal cost,
so a fixed vehicle charge does not encourage more efficient travel.


Sincerely,

Todd Litman, Director
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
1250 Rudlin Street
Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, Canada
Phone & Fax: 250-360-1560
E-mail:      litman at islandnet.com
Website:     www.islandnet.com/~litman