Heck yeah this is exactly what I ndeeed.
Pay-per-mile driving gets closer
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: Monday, 15. October 2007
Recently, David Forkenbrock, director of the University of Iowa Public Policy Center, got an award for the his paper on "A Mileage-Based Road User Charge Concept." The paper presents a design for replacing the motor fuel tax with another tax on the actual number of miles driven.
It looks like a precurser to the road-pricing concept of motorists paying according to how much they drive, where, and when.
"As more and more electric hybrid and fuel cell vehicles appear, the motor fuel tax will become unable to finance the nation's transportation systems," Forkenbrock said recently. Currently, the motor fuel tax pulls in $60 billion annually in the U.S. and is the cornerstone of transportation finance.
Beginning next year, drivers in six states will begin testing Forkenbrock's concept. The vehicles of 2,700 volunteers from six states will be equipped with computers and satellite equipment. Over the next two years, the drivers will get sample monthly bills for the number of miles they've driven. They can compare what they now pay in gasoline taxes with what they would have paid in per-mile fees.
"We use a GPS receiver on board the vehicle to locate the vehicle," says Forkenbrock. "An on-board computer computes the user charges due to each state and stores only the dollar figure owed. There is no tracking of vehicles' routes because we want to preserve road users' privacy," he explained. "The new approach protects the privacy of the traveler and ensures that the state in which travel occurs receives the revenue generated."
The research has been funded by a special pooled funding arrangement led by the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
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Elmira,
Brent,
what folks have to realize is that the benefits of GPS, tracking, etc. are so great that we will all inevitably have them - so if you are worried about privacy you need to think about control of access to information. Right now, I reckon the group with the greatest access to information is organized crime!
Government has restraints and controls, as to respectable corporations. Organized crime just has to pay what ever the going rate is, or pay a hacker.
me,
You've got to be kidding me! GPS on my car? Just tracking my mileage, huh? :) Yeah, right :) ha ha ha ha. Big Brother riding in my car? I should be charging you! I could see this starting a whole new taxation craze. Taxed for going over the state line, taxed for driving over the speed limit, taxed for spending time in crowded cities (to reduce congestion and smog of course!), taxed for driving during busy times of the day, and on and on.
gas on empty,
These Are the best thinkers we can come up with.
1. I'll never believe the goverment will eliminate the Gas tax after implememting this nex tax
2. this doesn't affect just a car owner, it affects any and all vehicles from the local delivery boy to UPS so across the board every thing we consumer and use will go up, including Utilies Ins hort you'll be payingmore and paying for every tax free item by businesses based on a delivery stops for a six pack of soda to the newspaper you read.
3. is this short fall really there or is it away for goverment to move more burden to the people directly in order to open up more tax waste and pay more socialized programs.
I thought Taxes came about to Pay for these Highway and put the people back to work FDR hence the IRS
4. I don't like the Idea of my Insurance Company let Alone the Goverment infringing on My liberties by always riding on my Dashboard hmm why would they need a warrant it's already there
oh and does this mean less Highway cops because they gotcha on Satelite now ! the infringmants are endless
The whitehouse shouldn't have shot just his plan down but sent him Packing as well.
DK,
Here's an interesting article about police misuse of databases.
http://www.copwatch.org/sheehanmichigandatabase.html
Scary if it's true
Orwells 1984,
User privacy. Uh huh, sounds great. What happens if the all knowing mileage computer screws up and over charges you. There's no record of your routes or way for you to appeal it????? Well, of course then we will have to record all vehicle routes and history, for your safety.
"Those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither" Ben Franklin
No.,
Please, no. Forced GPS in everyone's car. Great idea... Almost as wonderful as the OnStar feature in which police can halt your vehicle to a rolling start through GPS. We're just gonna walk like sheep, hand in hand, into every instance of control exerted upon our civilian population. Welcome to the biggest mistakes in our nation's history. Blind.
