Originally Posted by djplong

The gas tax had a nice side-effect of rewarding conservation, either by driving fewer miles or more efficient vehicles.

The bad side of that was, for a while, small tinfoil cars that were death traps.

As we're trying to move away from petroleum, SOMEthing has to replace the revenues that, in a perfect world, would be going away with reduced usage of gasoline and diesel. I mean, if you buy a Leaf or a Volt and always run on the battery, how are you paying for the upkeep of the roads?

But I think the per-mile thing isn't the right way to go. Combine the "Bg Brother" side of tracking your every movement and the fact that you'd be taxing a Hummer the same as a Prius and you have something that removes the conservation incentive.

...and let's not forget the fact that, in the current model, we significantly subsidize trucking. As I recall, trucks do the equivalent of several thousand cars worth of 'damage' (wear and tear) on a road, yet pay only slightly higher fuel taxes.