MARYLAND COST ALLOCATION STUDY

The Maryland highway cost allocation study was initiated to evaluate the equity of current state highway user tax payments among the users of Maryland's highways, roads and streets. All costs associated with the design, construction and maintenance of the highway systems were allocated among the various vehicle classes and weight groups in accordance with how these costs were occasioned. The selection of a cost-occasioned approach for allocating costs among vehicles parallels the current national study being conducted by the Federal Highway Administration. Numerous cost allocation methodologies have been proposed and applied at the national and state levels throughout the years. The cost-occasioned approach was selected for the Maryland study due to its general acceptance and the availability of highway cost and vehicle data required for its application. Since no single methodology is universally accepted as completely equitable, two cost allocation methodologies were selected and applied for this study. The Incremental Methodology which has been utilized for more than 30 years with minor variations in the basic criteria, and The Federal Primary Methodology which represents the methodology being applied in the current national study, that has been selected by the Federal Highway Administration as the best application of a cost occasioned approach. (Author)