DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Jan. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A-to-Be USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Portuguese A-to-Be, released today the second in a series of educational reports concerning transportation funding in the United States. The report, A Roadmap for Optimal Distance-Based User Fee Systems, examines Road Usage Charge (RUC) pilot programs in Oregon, California and Washington. Experiences from these pilots can be used to establish core components of intelligent transportation systems in the United States.
America's highways are paid for through primarily state and federal fuel taxes. These taxes have not kept pace with inflation and are worth 40 percent less than they were 25 years ago. To compensate diminishing funds, a growing number of states have looked to alternative revenue systems based on vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Also known as a mileage-based user fee or RUC, the Federal Highway Administration projects VMT will grow at an average rate of 1 percent annually over 20 years.
According to A-to-Be USA CEO Jason Wall, "The assumption that fuel consumption parallels road use is outdated and ignores evolving efficiency standards. Moreover, the current gas tax system places an unfair burden on low-income and rural households that spend more per mile on gasoline."
RUC pilot programs in Oregon, California and Washington establish viability for intelligent transportation systems in the United States and shed light on important consumer concerns. Chief among them are privacy, ease of use and consumer choice. The success of these pilots required close collaboration with private sector partners capable of administering the mock charge and managing customer accounts. A-to-Be solutions were used in California and Washington.
"Privacy is often cited as a key hurdle to the deployment of RUC systems," stated Wall. "But concerns for consumer privacy drive the development of intelligent transportation systems. In fact, whereas many tax collection programs require social security numbers, RUC systems to not collect personally identifiable information and there are non-GPS reporting methods available," he continued.
Oregon is currently the only state to administer a fully operational RUC program. OReGO went live in 2015 and is completely voluntary. Since then, it has enrolled more than 1,600 vehicles and Governor Brown last year signed legislation to expand the program. In 2017, California passed a stopgap measure to stabilize the state's short-term needs and to allow time to explore mileage-based alternatives. The pilot ran from July 2016 – March 2017 and enrolled over 5,000 volunteer participants. The pilot program in Washington concluded in January 2019 and the Washington State Transportation Commission is expected to offer its recommendations this month.
To access the full report, click here.
About A-to-Be
A-to-Be is a Portuguese-based company powered by Brisa (its major shareholder) responsible for developing and delivering solutions to mobility service operators internationally. For over 40 years, the company has provided leading tolling, traffic management, smart city, and revenue assurance solutions across Europe and the United States. A-to-Be processes over 1 billion tolling transactions and 25 million multi-service mobility transactions annually, managing more than 7 million customer accounts. A-to-Be provides a multitude of tolling solutions including self-service, electronic and satellite, as well as solutions connected directly to your smart device. Our solutions are vendor-independent, plug-and-pay and can be diversified to provide payment options for parking garages, public transport, fuel stations, and other MaaS value-added solutions.
For more information, visit https://www.a-to-be.com.
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SOURCE A-to-Be USA
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