Showing posts with label OReGO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OReGO. Show all posts

Thursday, June 18, 2015

From the folks who brought you the gas tax

Here's something a little different.

This is a still from a video project I've been working on (I did the illustrations and the animation). It's about a new concept we at the Oregon Department of Transportation are testing, replacing the gas tax with a per-mile fee.

The gas tax is an idea that's past its prime. The first gas tax was enacted  in Oregon back in 1919. Back then it was a great concept, and fair to most motorists. Nowadays, however, vehicles are more fuel efficient, and some cars — like electronic vehicles — don't pay any gas tax at all.

Mileage is up, revenues are down, costs for road maintenance and construction are up. A per-gallon gas tax is not a sustainable solution. As a nation, it doesn't even generate enough money to allow us to even maintain our roads and bridges at their current level of service.*

That's why we're trying something new: OReGO.

This video describes the program we're testing. It's an interesting concept, and if I say so myself, a pretty good video. Check it out!


*I've made a couple of cool infographics about those very ideas. I'll have to show them sometime!