SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane woman spent a year tracking the miles she drives as part of Washington State's pay-per-mile pilot project.
The state launched the pilot program in 2018 to see if a "road usage charge" is a good way to replace the gas tax.
Now that the pilot program has ended, KREM 2 caught up with Karen Gemmel to find out what she thought.
She was one of 2,000 people who volunteered for the pilot program.
Back in April, Gemmel told us she wanted to have a voice in this potential change.
Now that the pilot program is over, she is concerned about how the road usage charge would be distributed equally.
"I want to know how are they going to guarantee the little town I drive through is getting their portion of my road usage tax," Gemmel said. "They're going to have to have some kind of GPS system, and I just don't believe that the citizens of Washington are going to allow that."
During the pilot program, Gemmel used a plug-in device that tracked her mileage and sent that data to an app. Based on that data, Gemmel said the road usage charge would cost her about $5 a month more compared to the gas tax.
"That isn't a lot, but that's what--$60 dollars more a year," Gemmel said.
Does she recommend the switch to pay-per-mile? No.
"Because why would the semi driver that's hauling 12,000 pounds of gravel pay the same road usage charge that my little compact car pays?" Gemmel said.
The state collected feedback from all pilot program volunteers.
The Washington State Transportation Commission will now send their list of recommendations to the Legislature on a proposal to replace the gas tax with a pay-per-mile system.
You can read those recommendations here.