Utah to Test Personalized Road Usage Pricing

A pilot program will use GPS-enabled devices to track driving habits, allowing cities to use the data to create road pricing fee structures based on hyper-local and individual driving needs. Planetizen By Diana Ionescu July 13, 2023

Utah announced a pilot program that could lead to “hyper-specific” road usage fees based on drivers’ specific driving habits and needs.

The program uses an electronic dongle to monitor exactly where, when, and how much people drive. “Then, communities can consolidate that data into a single road usage charge that can be automatically adjusted based on their unique priorities — think extra tolls for using the express lane, or graduated fees for low-income motorists who truly have to drive — and automatically distributed to the agencies that manage the exact roadways those drivers' actually traveled.”

The concept is one way to replace gas tax revenue that many states rely on heavily for transportation funding and that will rapidly shrink as electric vehicles become a larger share of the market.

View the full article: Planetizen.com