When hydrogen engines and electric motors are the norm for vehicles, most drivers will not have to buy fuel at a gas station. They won’t even be “gas” stations. Where will the Government get the money for roads?
First, consider the technology; hydrogen and electric (h/e) are the near future. Most automakers are expecting to have these available in every model by 2020. That’s not very far off. Toddlers of today who get a new car for graduation will probably get an h/e car. (Like Uncle’s youngest.) The first link there points to a study in TN about toll roads. That points to the future of road taxes.
With most designs of h/e cars, a key feature is the ability to refuel/recharge at home. Daily drivers wouldn’t need to stop at a gas station. Long distance drives will still need them, but that’s interstate exchange stuff. It’s a watering hole layout. (Aside: given that anyone will be able to provide the service with just a big electric connection, there won’t be much “branding”. Shell, Mobil, BP, Speedway – who cares? It’ll all be just 10 pounds of hydrogen or a three-pronged plug.)
(An assumption here for hydrogen is that people could buy a small “hydrogen extraction” machine for their home. To fill up a 10 pound hydrogen tank, a small device about the size of an air compressor could be plugged into the house circuit and fed purified water as fuel. It wouldn’t be perfectly efficient, but that wouldn’t matter if you could just plug it in, keep it fueled, then let it run overnight to generate fuel to transfer to the car the next day.)
(Obviously, electric cars would just plug into an outside outlet. Eventually apartment and condo buildings would little electric posts out where the tenants park. Kinda like parking meters or the electric hookups that boats use in marinas. Of course, people would have to pay for their usage, so they would probably be secured with credit card readers or some such device. The Gov could probably tax the usage of these “posts”, but that would really be a boost to those who park in their own garage. Homeowners would figure out a way to hook up their car in the privacy of their own garage to the house electric without paying special taxes. Parking lots and commercial parking areas would probably offer them too.)
Back to taxes. At $3.00 per gallon, the Gov gets about 50 cents per gallon. So a 10 gallon fill up cost you $30 and get the Gov $5 (YMMV). Supposedly, that is paying for the road infrastructure. In terms of taxes and usage, it think it is a pretty fair system. It would be great if the taxes were actually sequestered and spent appropriately. We all know it just goes into a huge pot and is spent via earmarks. But the theory is fair. How can that be maintained when very few drivers are going to be paying that $5 per week? That is a minimum of $250 per car per year the Gov won’t be getting.
Getting taxes via Hydrogen pumps is pretty straight-forward, but that’s a one-time purchase. The fuel (water) isn’t going to get a special “road fuel” tax.
The Gov could just increase taxes on electricity, but how would they split out the usage of the home and the amount used to charge the cars? They can’t. That isn’t even remotely fair and would be stomped upon by lots of organizations.
Other alternatives are Toll Roads, Mileage Monitors, Driving Monitors, and Registration Fees.
Toll Roads: This is an expensive solution, but it would be fair. The only people paying are the people using. Customers could choose to pay automatically via an electronic device or manually at toll gates. Different rates could be assigned for different sized vehicles, which is fair – heavier or larger vehicles cause more wear and tear on the roads and bridges. One downside is the possibility of electronic monitoring (if the drivers uses electronic pay). Gov abuse could result in the Gov knowing everywhere someone drives, which I believe is an infringement on freedom. But, if one doesn’t want to be tracked, one could pay as they go. Although I’m sure the Gov would put cameras at every booth, so the Gov would still have a way of knowing where you’ve been. Aside from that, the Gov could vary the rate of the road based upon usage and value. A highly used route could cost more – and at different times – allowing some traffic relief. A significant down side is the greatly increased infrastructure. Toll booths cost money and must be staffed and maintained. And there would have to be a *lot* of them. Not just at the highway entrances (note that there would no longer be a “freeway”). Toll booths would be needed at every major interchange. Possibly even the little ones. Having a toll booth at the entrance to your subdivision would suck.
Mileage Monitors: A very good alternative that is also directly tied to usage. This would require some built-in device that the Gov could check (perhaps annually at registration time). This device would have to be tamper proof and standard across all vehicles. Given the number of Big Brother laws in the US Auto Industry today, a standardized feature like this – along with the reader for the DMV would not be a big deal. This also addresses the “privacy” issue – no Gov agency would know where you’ve driven, just that you have. A complication is the vehicles that must be registered but do not drive on public roads would still have to pay the tax (specialty vehicles). Perhaps a waiver system would be developed for them. One down side is the size of the payment. The Gov likes getting money from citizens a little at a time so they don’t feel the “bite”. But a huge, multi-hundred dollar payment – on top of the annual registration fee – would cause a lot of unhappy drivers to complain. Politicians would want to avoid that.
Driving Monitors: This solution is already being discussed in WA, but it has privacy advocates up in arms – as it should. This would require transponders within the vehicle and monitors placed in the roads to track the travels of the vehicles. The technology within the vehicle would have to be tamper proof. The technology along the road would have to be cheap because there would have to be so many of them. But the required system to track usage and provide billing would be ripe with opportunities for abuse. It would essentially create a database of where everyone was traveling at all times. Not just very bad, but very very bad. I’ve seen some excellent research that indicates this type of tracking isn’t allowed under the first amendment because it infringes on “freedom of travel”. And I agree.
Registration Fees: In lieu of a Mileage Monitor, a more simple “flat tax” fee could be added to the vehicle registration cost. Again, this would be in the hundreds of dollars in a lump-sum payment, which is unappealing. It would also be unfair. Other than having a DMV employee walk out to the car and inspect the odometer (which would itself probably incur an additional fee), there would be no way to adjust for usage.
I’m sure there are other possible solutions. Considering that there are at least two states considering how to garner additional income from road usage, there is probably some discussion on the subject at the lawmaker’s level. Hopefully, they will act in advance and have a solution in place before the revenues fall off and roads begin to crumble.
I actually think the best would be the mileage monitor. Too many people have no idea how much they pay in taxes every year (I, of course, have no idea how much I pay in gas tax) because we don’t have to write a big flipping check at the end of the year. And it’s the best of both worlds: fair and private.
Of course… I’m not so happy about the hydrogen thing. Then again, I’m already driving around on a big tank of explosive fuel, so I don’t really know why hydrogen freaks me out. But it does.