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The Road to Equity: Concerns and Analysis of RUC Pricing Mechanisms
By Zully Juarez - Just Solutions Collective, December 2022
As states, regions, and cities aim to transition to a clean energy future, many search for new transportation strategies and funding mechanisms. Pricing mechanisms like gas tax revenues or the Highway Trust Fund revenues are decreasing due to the energy efficiency of modern cars and the growing uptake and adoption of electric vehicles. Planning and transportation agencies across the U.S. are looking to replace their gas tax revenue with other pricing mechanisms like road user charges (RUC). However, any cost can highly impact low-income commuters already dealing with a lack of affordable public transit and affordable housing that causes them to live further from cities and rely on cars to go longer distances. Many low-income families have no option but to drive to work. Furthermore, any reliance on regressive taxes, meaning those with lower incomes pay more, will add to their challenges to make ends meet. Equity and tax progressivity considerations need to be a part of any road pricing conversation, to transform the way regions raise revenue for transportation and ensure equitable and progressive transportation funding during the phase-out of fossil fuels.
The following analysis aims to inform and better prepare community-based organizations (CBOs) and state advocates to participate more confidently in the conversations on road user charges and pricing mechanisms as they are discussed from state-to-state. If thoughtfully developed and implemented, these transportation funding mechanisms and strategies can also address climate, health, economic, and social equity in communities historically and disproportionately burdened by transportation inequities.
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