What Is the Federal Government Doing to Support Road Usage Charging?

State governments have been planning for the transition from traditional fuel taxes to a road usage charging (RUC) system — and the federal government will follow suit in the not-too-distant future.

I believe this is the natural progression of an important process that will tackle a looming crisis — how to pay for building and maintaining roads and bridges when the gas tax is dying a slow death?

State departments of transportation are already testing different approaches they believe will work best for their population and infrastructure. A national program can benefit from the knowledge gained and lessons learned at the state level.

In terms of federal government actions to support and advance RUC, much of it is related to a handful of key provisions set forth within the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Three of the most significant provisions:

• U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is required to carry out a national RUC pilot. BIL authorizes the national pilot at $10 million per year for fiscal years 2022 through 2026.
• USDOT is required to establish an advisory board, known as the Federal System Funding Alternative Advisory Board.
• USDOT is directed to continue awarding grants to states and local governments to test the viability of RUC.

The previous grant program, known as the Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives (STSFA) program, was established in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST) Act of 2015. Since then, WSP has been actively involved in working with many grant recipients to help them manage pilots funded by STSFA.

With the enactment of BIL, the STSFA grant program was replaced with the Strategic Innovation for Revenue Collection (SIRC) grant program. The newly named program is authorized at $15 million annually from fiscal years 2022 through 2026.

Although these BIL provisions are still awaiting action, it is possible that the SIRC grant program will move first. I anticipate that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) may announce a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), perhaps later this year.

Meanwhile, the RUC community is waiting with bated breath on the formation of an advisory board. At some point, USDOT will invite stakeholders and the public to nominate individuals to serve on the advisory board.

Likewise, the national pilot has yet to commence, although this was expected to be the last piece to move. That’s because a key role of the advisory board is to provide advice and recommendations to USDOT leadership on the design of a national pilot.

In the 18 months since BIL was signed into law, USDOT has moved quickly to carry out a number of newly created competitive grant programs and award billions of dollars to state, local and tribal governments. This is a complex, time-consuming task that continues to require an “all hands on deck” approach.

As a result, many of the policy and programmatic aspects of BIL, including RUC, have yet to move forward.

But in the near future, they will. And these provisions will advance RUC in new and exciting ways.

We need political champions at all levels of government to make RUC a reality. Public acceptance of RUC will depend on building a broad coalition of opinion leaders and stakeholders who recognize the benefits of moving to a mileage-based user fee: environmental justice groups, climate groups, organizations that care about equity, bike and pedestrian advocates, transit and rail groups and micromobility companies.

Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions about the program. I recently watched a state legislator erroneously express outrage that the state was considering charging people by the mile, in addition to gas taxes.

If government leaders remain confused about the program, we have much work to do to educate the public and raise awareness.

Yet here’s some good news: Public support for RUC has been slowly but steadily rising.

Professor Asha Weinstein Agrawal of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University found that in 2010, only 21 percent of those surveyed said they support a RUC program. But by 2021, that support grew to 47 percent.

And even more encouraging — support is stronger among those who’ve participated in pilots.

There’s a lot to look forward to as USDOT and FHWA begin to design a national pilot and recruit thousands of participants in every state to take part in it. We have a golden opportunity to introduce RUC to more people and give them a chance to try it on a very personal level.

And if the past is any indication, once we do that, the public will likely come away with a favorable impression.

For more perspective on road usage charges,  check out Kim’s recent conversation with Grayson Brulte at SAE International, “Is the Rise of EVs the End of the Gas Tax?”

For information about the challenges of EV transition, check out Kim's discussion on the topic in Paul Comfort's Transit Unplugged podcast.

About David Kim: Kim is a senior vice president and national transportation policy and multimodal strategy principal for WSP USA. Based in Washington, D.C., he collaborates with public and private senior transportation executives across the U.S., helping guide policy-making that supports federal funding for transportation projects. Prior to joining WSP, he served as secretary of the California State Transportation Agency where he was responsible for 40,000 employees across eight departments. Kim is a graduate of Occidental College with a bachelor’s degree in political science, and the University of Southern California with a master’s degree in public administration.