Saying transit agencies need financial help, legislative Democrats announced a budget plan Friday that digs up extra cash for bus and rail in California while boosting the state general fund. The proposal, to be heard at the Senate budget committee Tuesday, would allow local governments to establish a fee at the gas pump – possibly a fraction of a penny or a few pennies per gallon. Metropolitan areas could spend that money on transit to help comply with state greenhouse gas reduction requirements.

Within a few years, a driver who pulls up to the gas pump may pay two bills with a single swipe of the credit card: one for the gas and the other for each mile driven since the last fill-up. That may be the result of what many transportation experts see as an inevitable revolution in the way Americans pay for their highways.

The flow of the gas tax pipeline that has poured cash into one of the world's premier highway systems has slowed as some people drive less and others choose more fuel-efficient vehicles. Maintaining that aging network and tackling the rush-hour congestion afflicting most cities will require billions of dollars. As gas tax revenue dwindles, federal and state lawmakers have an option created by innovative new technology: charge the nation's 201 million drivers for every mile they travel. ... In 2008, then-U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters warned a Senate subcommittee that the "fuel tax is unsustainable in the future."

"Virtually every economist who has studied transportation says that direct pricing of road use, similar to how people pay for other utilities, holds far more promise . . . than do traditional gas taxes," she said. But getting the public and its elected officials to accept that idea may be a tough sell. It is a change that could spark more debate than health-care reform, as federal and state policymakers weigh the use of pioneering technology against expected opposition from those who fear an invasion of their privacy and view paying per mile of road use as a form of taxation. "Technology is not the limiter," said Ginger Goodin, a senior research engineer at the Texas Transportation Institute who did a major study on pricing. "The decision is in the policy arena. It's entirely up to lawmakers and their constituents."

Finding 1: Developing more compactly, that is, at higher residential and employment densities, is likely to reduce VMT.

Finding 2: The literature suggests that doubling residential density across a metropolitan area might lower household VMT by about 5 to 12 percent, and perhaps by as much as 25 percent, if coupled with higher employment concentrations, significant public transit improvements, mixed uses, and other supportive demand management measures.

Finding 3: More compact, mixed-use development can produce reductions in energy consumption and CO₂ emissions both directly and indirectly.