Assessing economic impacts of implementing a vehicle miles traveled fee in Nevada

This study develops a linear regression model to estimate the number of miles driven by households in Nevada, using data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey. The regression model is designed to be sensitive to changes in the cost to drive. Hence, the model is used to evaluate different mechanisms used to charge for the use of the highway system. In particular, two alternative Vehicle Miles of Travel (VMT) Fees are compared with the existing fuel tax system. In each case, it was estimated how different houses experience different effects on charges as a consequence of different fuel efficiencies. The analysis performed considers the average changes in the household tax burden and VMT as well as the aggregated change in VMT and the corresponding change in revenue collected.