Issue
Washington’s gas tax currently funds a large portion of the transportation budget, which pays for maintenance of state highways, ferries, and other infrastructure. As vehicles become increasingly fuel-efficient, gas consumption will continue to decrease; as a result, gas tax revenues will decrease.
Spark
One possible alternative is a “Road Usage Charge” (RUC). A RUC is a per-mile charge that drivers would pay for use of roads, rather than paying by the gallon of gas. Regardless of a car’s fuel efficiency, drivers will pay the same tax for driving the same roadway miles.
Overview
The Smartphone Innovation Challenge was a sponsored competition designed to improve smartphone approaches for mileage reporting in a road usage charge tax system. The competition asked IT engineers, software developers, and designers to create a prototype solution in the form of an app for mileage reporting using a smartphone. This app should allow drivers to use their own smartphone to record and report mileage, as well as allow drivers to decide whether or when to enable GPS.
Innovation
Through their participation in the Smartphone Innovation Challenge, four student teams helped to identify design requirements for a smartphone-based reporting system that could charge roadway users based on mile driven.
Team 1: A user-centered interface design for a Washington RUC smartphone application that provides drivers with the type of information they value most, while eliminating information and features that are unimportant or distracting, especially while driving.
Team 2: A smartphone app design that allows drivers to choose to categorize trips to self-analyze their driving habits, as well as allows drivers to quickly and easily contest their trips and request that a RUC account manager fix any incorrect mileage.
Team 3: A smartphone app design that features a toggle on/off GPS mileage recording to ensure that out-of-state miles are deducted from a driver’s RUC account. It also includes Border Proximity Detection, where an audible sound reminds drivers to activate the out-of-state mileage deduction feature as the vehicle approaches a state border.
Team 4: iSchool WARUC Capstone: A working prototype of a smartphone app for the IOS (iPhone) operating system. The app, “WARUC,” uses a simple, “no-look” swipe on the smartphone screen to activate or deactivate mileage reporting. This team also received approval to distribute their app through Apple’s iTunes App Store.
Materials
- Read the Report
Impact
Several features developed through the Smartphone Innovation Challenge were incorporated into the statewide Washington Road Usage Charge Pilot and recommendations were forwarded to the technology service providers responsible for integration and testing in the live pilot.
Team
The WARUC project mentors engaged four teams of student researchers across three departments who shared an interest in working on road usage charge smartphone app design, software, and technology.
Academic Department
Partners
