Washington’s pay-per-mile program six months in

We’re about six months into Washington state’s pay-per-mile pilot project, and it’s apparently going well.

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There are approximately 1,900 Washington drivers testing the system right now. Just over 100 people dropped out over the first six months, or never really got started.

Jeff Doyle, the consultant tracking the Road Usage Charge (or pay-per-mile) for the Washington State Transportation Commission, said it’s going well.

“Just wanted to share some good news,” he told the commission recently. “Everything in this report is good news. I don’t have any bad news today.”

Doyle said drivers made a clear choice in how they wanted to track their miles, with a majority opting to self-report instead of using the GPS plug-in device.

“Forty-percent of the participants have chosen the plug-in device that automatically records their mileage,” he said.

The other 60 percent are tracking their mileage on their own. Doyle said most of them are having no trouble doing that.

“We ran some numbers and we were very pleased to see that about 80 percent of those participants that are required to self-report mileage are actually doing it in the pilot project,” Doyle said.

Of course, this the same reporting method State Rep. Mark Harmsworth intentionally used to game the system to alert project administrators.

If you’re looking to take part in this project, you can still get in. There is an open enrollment period starting next week. Current participants can also use this time to tweak their reporting methods.

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There will be a series of focus group meetings in the fall to get direct feedback from participants.

Washington is collaborating with Idaho and Oregon to determine how to properly charge drivers traveling across state lines. That will be a key component to making pay-per-mile seamless, especially with seven western states looking at this method as a way to more accurately charge drivers for the wear and tear on the roads.

Washington officials say that if the Road Usage Charge is adopted, it will replace the gas tax. Though administrators admit there will likely be 10 years of transition time when both will be in effect.

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