A Gasoline Tax as a User's Fee?

A recent editorial that appeared in my local newspaper touted the idea of utilizing a gasoline tax as a user's fee to fund construction and maintenance of roads in the Commonwealth of Virginia. However, I cannot understand why any otherwise-intelligent person would consider a gasoline tax to be a fee for the use of roads. In the sense that one wanted to look at it as a user’s fee, it could correctly be stated that it is a fee for the use of gasoline. However, it is clearly not a fee for the use of roads. A true road user’s fee would result in all users of given roads paying approximately the same amount to use them -- and paying only when they use such roads. A toll would be an excellent example of a true user’s fee for a road or a collection thereof.

A gasoline tax does not meet this criterion. For one thing, gas mileage varies wildly. Those who drive small, fuel-efficient automobiles would pay considerably less to use Virginia’s roads than those who drive luxury cars or SUVs. If someone is getting twice the gas mileage that I’m getting, I would theoretically be paying two cents to use Virginia's roads for every one cent they are paying for the use of the same. Furthermore, not all the gasoline purchased in Virginia is used to navigate Virginia’s roads. For example, what if I filled up my tank in Richmond and then headed straight to Florida? I would obviously burn most of that gas outside the commonwealth. Then again, someone else might fill up just across the border in North Carolina and then drive into Virginia and burn it all here. Now, which part of “a gasoline tax is not a user’s fee for roads” do people still not understand?