The recipients of those seven grants – the DOTs from California, Delaware, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Utah – will “investigate and evaluate various mileage-based and road-user charges, including for trucks and automated vehicles, and the implementation and operation of the technologies at a regional level,” FHWA said in a statement.

Two of those awards – the ones to Delaware and Oregon – are funding regional initiatives. In the case of Delaware, the STSFA grant supports the I-95 Corridor Coalition, with the Delaware Department of Transportation as the lead entity; a program that is testing the viability of mileage-based user fees or “MBUFs” as an alternative to fuel taxes. In the case of Oregon, the STSFA grant will help support the Western Road User Charge Consortium; a group made up of 11 states that’s also testing whether a pay-by-mile system can effectively replace fuel taxes.
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