SALEM, Ore. – As cars become more fuel-efficient (or even fuel independent), state coffers that depend on gas taxes to fund infrastructure projects are at a growing risk. While some states have reacted by levying a tax on electric cars, Oregon is now pioneering a more comprehensive, long-term solution: replacing gas taxes with per-mile road-use fees for all cars.

The new taxing system will be tested with a pilot program of up to 5,000 volunteer drivers that begins July 1. These volunteers will help decide whether a 1.5-cent-per-mile road tax can really replace the traditional gas tax.

Each car in the test will be equipped with a device that plugs into the vehicle’s onboard diagnostic port to gather mileage data, according to an article in Green Car Reports. Data collection will be overseen by road-tolling company Sanef ITS Technologies America, and its parent Intelligent Mechatronic Systems, which makes the devices.

Drivers will still pay the gas tax, but at the end of each month data will be passed on to the Oregon Department of Transportation, which oversees that tax revenue so that the agency can compare fuel consumption and mileage data.

Participants will then receive either a rebate, or an invoice for any road tax due.
More than 10 states are in the process of writing similar legislation or beginning trial runs of their own systems, according to Intelligent Mechatronic Systems.