I used to work for a state DOT, and was very amused to find out that it considered truckers who fueled up just shy of the state line (where gas taxes were $0.13 less per gallon) to be lawbreakers. Not in the since that the Highway Patrol could pull them and write a ticket, but they considered the lost revenue to be a form of tax evasion and we constantly trying to figure out how to resolve this issue.

Part of the problem stemmed from the fact that my state maintained a much higher percentage of road miles than the other state, which relied on counties to maintain all those expensive, out of the way roads that are little used compared to interstates. I guess the county revenue came from sales tax not gas tax, or something; anyway, for whatever reason there is a huge discrepancy.

DOTs nationwide have discussed forcing automakers to equip cars with tracking devices for calculating road miles driven, though naturally this has immediately raised privacy concerns and hasn't really been taken seriously.

DOTs in general see gas taxes as much too crude a measure, because of differing fuel efficiencies and the fact that a mile driven on a lightly used suburban road during off-peak hours costs the state a lot less than a mile driven at rush hour on an intra-city corridor ("Interstate" highways being used by local commuters).

They bitch and bitch that Priuses, etc. are costing them money because they are too efficient. Naturally one wonders why they don't tell the legislature it's either higher gas taxes or shittier roads, because with fuel efficient cars becoming more popular and construction costs soaring due to inflation (China buying more steel and concrete, etc.), gas tax revenue is not keeping up, and something's got to give.

Anyway, raising our already high-ish gas taxes is evidently not an option (even though our state's economy keeps chugging despite the recent gas price surge). I don't get it, but I'm worried about what the legislature is going to do to get road money, and I'm thinking it's not going to be pretty or equitable.