Caltrans is looking for 5,000 volunteers to take the California Road Charge challenge and allow the tracking of time spent on highways or miles traveled per car.
Urban planners studying road charges as a superior alternative to gas taxes predict the number of takers will exceed 5,000 shortly because people are fed up with traffic, potholes and poor road and freeway conditions and want to help.
“Well, they just started (last) Monday. But I’m certain there will be more than 5,000 households trying to sign up,” said Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments, a six-county agency that maps out regional transportation needs decades into the future.