U.S. Legislative Issues

FHWA Awards Grants to Test Gas Tax Alternatives 

On Aug. 30, 2016, the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced $14.2 million in grants to fund projects to test the design, implementation and acceptance of user-based alternative revenue mechanisms. The grants were made possible under the Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives (STSFA) program, an initiative established via the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act to explore alternative revenue mechanisms to help sustain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.

According to FHWA, the grants will fund eight projects in seven states to pilot a variety of options to raise revenue, including on-board vehicle technologies to charge drivers based on miles traveled and multi-state or regional approaches to road user charges. The projects will address common challenges involved with implementing user-based fees such as public acceptance, privacy protection, equity and geographic diversity. The projects will also evaluate the reliability and security of the technologies available to implement mileage-based fees.

Committee Leaders Press NHTSA on Security and Safety Concerns 

In a letter sent to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator Mark Rosekind, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) partnered with  Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA), and Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), to express lingering safety and security concerns over On-Board Diagnostic (OBD-II) ports within vehicles.  

"In the past several years, information security researchers have discovered and demonstrated increasingly effective – and increasingly frequent – attacks on the internal networks of automobiles through the use of OBD-II ports and the devices that connect to them." the committee leaders wrote. 

"We are keenly aware of the risks and disadvantages that may come from attempting to address the cybersecurity risks created by the existence of the OBD-II port," continued Upton, Walden, Murphy, and Burgess. "However, as the growing series of OBD-II based vulnerabilities shows, the OBD-II port as it currently exists creates a growing risk to the safety and security of passengers." 

In light of these concerns, the Sept. 12 letter concludes with a request that NHTSA convene an industry-wide effort to develop a plan of action for addressing the risks associated with the OBD-II ports.

According to new data issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2015 saw the largest single-year increase in traffic fatalities in five decades. The agency reported that 35,092 people were killed in traffic accidents last year, representing a 7.2 percent increase from 2014. 

According to NHTSA, job growth and low fuel prices were two factors that led to increased driving, which can contribute to higher fatality rates. In 2015, vehicle miles traveled increased 3.5 percent over 2014, the largest increase in nearly 25 years.

Notably, NTHSA noted that human factors continued to contribute to the majority of crashes. According to the data, almost half of passenger vehicle occupants killed were not wearing seat belts and nearly one in three fatalities involved drunk drivers or speeding. The data also showed that one in 10 fatalities involved distraction.

In response to the upsurge, DOT, NHTSA, and the White House have issued a call to action to a wide range of stakeholders to help determine the causes of the increase. Further, NHTSA announced it will share its Fatality Analysis Reporting System with safety partners, state and local officials, technologists, data scientists, and policy experts.