Graduate student researcher Matthew Volovski was selected as one of three winners in the 2015 International Road Federation (IRF) Student Essay Competition with his essay titled, "Funding for Highway Asset Construction and Maintenance: Sustainable Alternatives to the Traditional Gas Tax."

This paper investigated the current and emerging transportation trends that threaten the adequacy of traditional funding mechanisms.  It then examined the experience of federal and state agencies that have used or experimented with innovative funding strategies. This helped identify the design of the pricing scheme impacts on users, technology issues, legal and institutional issues and barriers to implementation including public acceptability. A vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) fee mechanism offers what may promise to be the most sustainable solution because it has the greatest potential in achieving revenue adequacy and equity among the different classes of highway users. However, the implementation of the VMT fee is expected to involve a large capital outlay at its inception due to technological hardware and software. Also, issues related to change inertia and privacy are expected to cause public opposition at least at the initial stages of its implementation. The experience of several agencies has shown that the costs and barriers to implementation are expected to decline as the initial period wears off. A reformed finance system would remain subject to many of the external political and economic constraints that limit the revenue potential of the present system. However, reform would help transportation agencies manage capacity and target investment to projects with the greatest benefit to the public.

Matthew is a graduate student researcher working with Drs. Kumares Sinha and Samuel Labi in the field of transportation asset management. He is currently finishing his PhD research which focuses on the impacts that long-term social and economic trends can have on the sustainability of transportation funding.

The IRF Student Essay Competition is an annual contest held to recognize promising road research. This competition is open to all students attending an IRF Member university in good standing, as well as IRF Fellows currently enrolled as full time students. At the judges' discretion, a maximum of three winning essays will receive a US $500 cash award.

Additionally, the winning essays will be published in the IRF Examiner, a freely available periodical journal featuring peer-reviewed technical papers by leading industry professionals.

The categories and related topics for the competition are developed based on input from IRF Members regarding their research needs.