What if drivers were taxed based on how far they drive instead?
That’s just what a number of groups, including the organization representing state transportation agencies, say ought to happen — and soon. With the cost of building and maintaining highways and mass transit outstripping the money collected from fuel taxes, and no appetite in Washington to raise tax rates, they say it’s time to redesign the way people pay for their transportation system.
Even the Obama administration floated the idea as part of a draft reauthorization of the highway funding bill, though the White House has since distanced itself from the idea.