IOWA CITY -- A University of Iowa study could be worth cash to some eastern Iowa motorists, but the results of the study could leave a financial mark on all Iowa drivers.

The federal government is funding the $16.5 million study conducted by the University of Iowa's Public Policy Center and will pay drivers who sign up to participate $895 to keep track of their driving habits by installing a GPS device on their cars.

The results of the study could have ramifications on how everyone pays for road construction and upkeep.

State and federal taxes on every gallon of gasoline sold support funding for road and bridge maintenance, and with the spike in fuel prices, revenues have shrunk, said Dena Gray-Fisher, spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Transportation.

"The state estimated there is a need for about $200 million each year just for basic necessities," she said.

With the drop in automobile use, brought on by this year's record-breaking fuel prices, reaching that level has become difficult, she said.

"People are driving less and buying fewer vehicles, and that's where a lot of the revenue comes from," she said.

Drivers in the Cedar Valley aren't eligible to participate in the study, called the National Evaluation of a Mileage-Based Road User Charge, which will focus on six test sites. However, the eastern Iowa counties of Delaware, Dubuque, Linn, Jones, Jackson, Cedar, Clinton, Muscatine and Scott comprise one of the sites selected for the two-year research project.

The others are San Diego; Austin, Texas; Baltimore; the Durham-Raleigh-Chapel Hill "Research Triangle" in North Carolina; and Boise, Idaho.

The overriding objective of the study is to test a new approach to paying road taxes, based on the number of miles drivers travel.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, seeing a drop in automobile traffic after last summer's spike in gasoline prices, decided to get involved in the project, said David Forkenbrock, professor of urban and regional planning and director of the Public Policy Center.

"First, the increasing fuel efficiency of the nation's vehicle fleet is very positive, but it means lower receipts per mile traveled," he said in a news release. "A more serious revenue threat is that in future years, electric hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, as well as those with other energy-conserving propulsion systems, will become more commonplace."

The USDOT wants to use the study to determine if a fixed pay-per-mile system would serve as a more reliable source of funds than the gas tax, which is how the Federal Highway Trust Fund gets its money now.

Record-high prices for fuel, which hammered the U.S. this year, have delivered a blow to revenue collections used for road maintenance, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Prescreened and selected participants in the study, which has a limited number of spots, will have an onboard computer temporarily installed in their vehicles.

The computer will store a record of charges accrued from road use.

The downside? In essence, the government can track every automotive move a participant makes.

The Public Policy Center says the system is configured to safeguard the user's privacy, saying "it is significant that the only figure that can be tied to a particular vehicle is a single dollar amount for total user charges that are due. When data are transferred from the vehicle to the network operating center, these data are encrypted to assure anonymity."

States, including Iowa, are beginning to grapple with alternatives to fuel taxes, in an era where alternative fuels are beginning to get serious attention, Gray-Fisher said.

"If you have an electric car, there's no mechanism in Iowa to assess fees," she said.

"Even though they're using and benefitting from the roadways, they're not supporting them."

User fees might be a fairer solution, she said.

"I think what we have to look at is Iowa needs to move ahead if all these modes of energy sources are starting -- and we're already seeing them," she said. "We have to figure out how we're going to fold these vehicles into our current system. That's really what the university's study is about -- looking at that and what is feasible."

Such studies likely are a part of a comprehensive approach to revamp the system that funds Iowa's roads and bridges, Gray-Fisher said.

"That might be something that could be a longer-term solution," she said.

"These efforts in Iowa, such as the registration fees and changes in fuel tax rates are more easily implemented because there are already structures in place."

Contact Jim Offner

at (319) 291-1598 or

jim.offner@wcfcourier.com.