Uses of National Household Travel Survey Data in - NHTS Home ...

Policy and Mobility
Equity Implications of Replacing Federal Fuel Taxes with Per-Mile User Charges
Authors:
Weatherford, Brian Anthony
Transportation Research Board - 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
TRB 90th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD
Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting
2011
Abstract:
Policy makers have begun to consider replacing state and Federal fuel taxes with per-mile user charges,
also referred to as “VMT fees.” VMT fees would be more financially sustainable and more closely link
actual use of the transportation system to the costs of maintaining and expanding it. This paper uses data
from the 2001 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) and a simple OLS regression methodology to
examine the potential social equity implication that such a change in the tax structure might cause. At the
national level, a VMT fee would be less regressive than fuel taxes are, suggesting that a VMT fee would
be a more socially equitable way to increase funding of the transportation system. However, replacing
fuel taxes with a VMT fee designed to be completely revenue neutral resulted in a net social welfare loss
of $1.9 billion. Other vertical equity implications were modest but there were disproportionate horizontal
equity impacts among low income households. Low income retired households were made relatively
better off than other low income households while low income single parent households were made
significantly worse off.
Subject areas and Index Terms
Finance; Highways; Policy; I10: Economics and Administration
Demographics; Equity (Justice); Finance; Fuel taxes; Mathematical models; Socioeconomic factors;
Transportation policy; User charges; Vehicle miles of travel; Mileage-based user fees
Availability: Transportation Research Board Business Office
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