GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Michigan's Department of Transportation looks into whether to begin charging drivers for the miles they travel on the road.
Their first step is conducting a survey of 20,000 Michiganders to inform residents and get their takes on different ideas.
"We're going to ask them some pretty basic questions about their understanding of road use charges," Ruestman said. "We're going to ask them about how much did they travel, how many miles did they travel and if they've ever thought about the cost of that and the fees associated with that."
"Then, we're actually going to take the opportunity during the survey to do a little education or putting together a little video that explains what a road use charge is, and what different ways are that that can be collected and how that might look. And then we'll ask some follow up questions about, given that information and that increased knowledge. now what are their perceptions of it and what do they think is a fair way to collect that funding."
It comes as Michigan's current tax on diesel and gasoline that helps to fund road projects has become a point of concern for the state given its push to transition its economy to electric vehicles.
A report commissioned by the state's County Road Association estimated that electric vehicle usage means the state's road funding deficit could balloon to almost $500 million by 2030. The report urged the state to think of other ways to make up the loss.
"All alternate fuel vehicles take away from that tax base," Ruestman said. "We've been very dependent on fossil fuels on taxing fossil fuels. Well, that's not the way the future is going. So, we have to look at different ways to continue adequately funding transportation, so that we have good public transit options, good road options."
The survey will ask, in part, what methods of recording a driver's mileage that residents would be comfortable with, from self-reporting to other methods like GPS tracking, which Ruestman acknowledged could create privacy concerns. However, it's the point of the survey, Ruestman said, to gauge perceptions and hammer out details before any pilot program hits the streets.
"How can we do that safely, though, and is that something, again, that given that understanding by people, would they be comfortable with that being the methodology of tracking miles and then charging," Ruestman said. "Or would they want to self report? And what would that look like?"
Ruestman said the surveys will likely start going out in mid-October.
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