(WXYZ) — The more you drive, the more you pay—that’s the basis for a new system the state’s studying, called a road usage charge, or pay-per-mile.
Watch Carli's report in the video player below:
"This is a viable option, a substitute of the gas tax," said Nate Bryer, road usage charging business lead, who is speaking in Lansing this week to try to give the plan some momentum.
“I think Michigan and any other state that’s interested in making sure there’s long-term sustainability of the funding model that goes into paying for roads and bridges and maintenance would be interested in it," Bryer told us.
The plan has already been adopted in other states. Bryer says if Michigan begins using it, it could eventually replace the gas tax as a way to help fund our roads as electric vehicles become more popular.
EV owner Nader Faraj believes we should still be incentivizing people to go electric rather than steering them away from the idea with a proposed road usage charge.
“I think it’s too soon, honestly. I think when we can get the majority of people to get into these EVs, and I think the technology has gotten so good and it’s only getting better every single year, then at that point I would be all for the tax," said Faraj.
With about 50,000 registered electric vehicles in Michigan, as of 2023, according to the US Department of Energy, finding a long-term, sustainable road funding system has been deemed a 2025 priority of Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
She’s included $7.8 million in her budget to “explore road funding options.”
"People are wondering how the miles are going to be counted, is there going to be a tracker put on the car, how does that work?” I asked.
"There’s going to be options and in the studies and pilots I’ve been involved in, states have tried four or five different methods from something very low tech which is just collecting your odometer through a manual means, and then on the very other end, you have the high-tech solution that’s very involved and generally it’s either a built in device meaning the vehicle manufacturer built it in or an after market device that tracks the vehicle," said Bryer.
For years now, the state has been discussing a road usage charge.
Bryer says running a pilot program is the first step to making this happen.
"If the money in the budget is approved and the money for the pilot is set aside for it, still some ifs there, but if that is the case, it is a good idea that they probably would want to start the first of the year in 2026," he said.
