Oregon’s decade-long voluntary rate program is scheduled to become mandatory in July 2027 for existing electric vehicles under House Bill 3991, which was signed into law by Gov. Tina Kotek (D) last fall. Advocates of charging drivers based on how much they drive believe the practice will spread as transportation departments grapple with ongoing funding shortfalls.
Opponents collected enough signatures to send key parts of the bill to a statewide vote in November, and the governor last month asked the Legislature to repeal the entire bill and avoid a funding limbo for the Oregon department. Transportation However, it is debated whether this is possible due to the pending voter referendum.
But with the federal gas tax frozen for decades, many transportation advocates have long advocated for a road user fee. “The rest of the country was waiting for us to pass this into law,” Jim Whitty, former chief innovation officer at the Oregon DOT, said in a MIT Mobility Forum online event on February 6. He noted that state transportation departments such as Minnesota, Hawaii and Utah are making similar efforts and have consulted with the Oregon DOT.
While some parts of the bill, such as the gas tax increase, will go to voters in November, “the provision was left by the mile,” he said.
The voluntary program, OReGO, allows drivers to choose how their miles are tracked, either by GPS or odometer readings. “We had 1,000 volunteers for 10 years,” Whitty said. “We’ll see hundreds of thousands of vehicles” with the mandatory program.
The process is not perfect, he acknowledged. “If a vehicle owner chooses GPS, [consequent revenues] are limited to state roads. It’s like filling up in Iowa and then driving to Oregon. Most taxes are like that: they’re good estimates rather than precision,” he said, adding that trying to track mileage more precisely would be too invasive of privacy.
The Oregon DOT doesn’t track travel patterns and deletes mileage data after a short time, he added.
“Gas taxes were great when we didn’t have technology. Now they are,” said Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase. “How do we arrive at user fees that truly reflect costs?” He noted that the traditional process of selecting a bidder to implement a program, such as a toll system or congestion pricing, removes any incentive to upgrade technology because the provider typically has a long-term contract.
Frederic Charlier, founder and CEO of ClearRoad, agreed: “Inertia is the challenge. When an agency has invested millions in building an approach and equipping vehicles with devices, switching gears is difficult. This is where we and other companies have tried to introduce new technologies.”
ClearRoad offers digital tools that use apps and in-vehicle devices to facilitate road user fee charges, manage tolls and implement low-cost dynamic pricing solutions, such as in the city of Bogotá. “They said, we’re a developing country; we need something cheap and scalable,” Charlier said. “We can’t afford sophisticated cameras and readers.” Instead, congestion pricing is enabled through existing traffic lights and smartphones. “Road freight can be low-tech. There’s room to do anything you can imagine. Creativity is the limit.”
While the Oregon DOT has a tax on heavy trucks based on weight and distance traveled, lighter trucks may be hit with a new road use fee, Whitty said, adding, “We put the basic system in place first.”
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