Good bye Fuel Tax, Hello "By-the-Mile" Tax???...Frightening

[cigdaze]

Taxation aside, I'm sure the government is just salivating at just the thought of knowing where anyone is at any one time, and where they've been.

Ya, sure it would be easy to cheat, but just thinking of the implications is frightening.

The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center.

What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted.

Besides the technological advances making such a tax possible, the idea is getting a hard push from a growing number of transportation experts and officials. That is because the traditional by-the-gallon fuel tax, struggling to keep up with road building and maintenance demands, could fall even farther behind as vehicles' gas mileage rises and more alternative-fuel vehicles come on line.

The idea of shifting to a by-the-mile tax has been discussed for years, but it now appears to be getting more serious attention. A federal commission, after a two-year study, concluded earlier this year that the road tax was the "best path forward" to keep revenues flowing to highway and transportation projects, and could be an important new tool to help manage traffic and relieve congestion.

The decision by the 15-member National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission was unanimous, which surprised Robert Atkinson, the group's chairman. But he said it became clear as the commission's work progressed that a road tax on miles traveled was the best option.

"If you're committed to the system being improved then it was a no-brainer," he said.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/nation/story/71078.html

 

[Magic Medicine]

WTF that is scary!

 

[OldSchool]

I'll be riding a 115mpg Honda Ruckus to work when this goes down. 49 cc's, no tag needed if driven on a road that has a speed limit of 50 or less.


What was the old joke about the similarities between mopeds and fat girls???:rofl::rofl:

 

[JupiterSunsation]

I'll be riding a 115mpg Honda Ruckus to work when this goes down. 49 cc's, no tag needed if driven on a road that has a speed limit of 50 or less.


What was the old joke about the similarities between mopeds and fat girls???:rofl::rofl:

Both fun to ride until your friends see you.......

 

[Chris]

There are many thousands of dopey ideas that come out of our various agencies and committees. And out of those, many hundreds are introduced as legislation by lawmakers with their heads up their a$$es. Fortunately most of our lawmakes are at least blessed with the sense of self-preservation.

Having said that, lawmakers hate for thie purses to get smaller. And the fuel efficient cars will definitely cause this to happen. Nothing would surprise me from this present administration.

 

[ImaPoser]

Sad part is, even if they do go with a by the mile tax, they won't do away with the gas tax. They've always said the gas tax is an incentive to drive more fuel efficient vehicles. Now that people are doing it and they are losing too much in revenue, they need a way to boost it back up. They will just add the new tax on top of the road tax.

 

[insanity]

Time to get a new Schwinn.

I thought I had read where this was already being implemented out on the west coast in Oregon...???

 

[Expensive Date]

Time to get a new Schwinn.

Then they will tax them to.It will be a pedal tax

 

[Warlock28SXT]

No more gas tax.........I'm taking the boat to work:biggrinjester:

 

[Perlmudder]

My cousin is works for the NYU transit and he said the reason they do not make the GPS location of the buses open to the public is because they are worried about terrorist strikes. Would that not put a lot of people in danger if someone was able to track every move of your vehicle?

 

[Wobble]

My cousin is works for the NYU transit and he said the reason they do not make the GPS location of the buses open to the public is because they are worried about terrorist strikes. Would that not put a lot of people in danger if someone was able to track every move of your vehicle?

Any GM onstar or similar system can do that now.

 

[03darkshadow]

big brother?

 

[phragle]

relax.. feasibly impossible.

1. you would have to outfit every vehicle in the country with a gps transponder.
2. second you would have to have each device hard wired into a vehicle (if you just pluged it into the cigarette lighter it would be to easily defeated)
3. who is/how are you going to keep rack of all the information?? process it?? send out bills?? actually collect ad process the money?? process errors??
4. how will you maintain the vehicle systems??

 

[Wobble]

Phragle in theory it is nothing more than a few chips added to the vehicles ecm. It is more than possible now. Onstar is a separate box as it is an option but when they decide to add to all vehicles that does not need to be the case. They would be just as reliable as any car computer. Monitoring would be software dependant, again, more than feasible now.

I predict that all new vehicles will be GPS capable within ten years. Just as they all now record the last few minutes of data prior to a crash. Logically all the manufacturers will make this gps data further available to law enforcement and insurance sources.

There have been several fatal high speed fatal accidents in the Houston area recently and in each case they have downloaded all available telemetry from the vehicles computer and determined the exact vehicle speed and whether there was brake or steering input.

 

[phragle]

you theroy takes into account new cars..... how many people in this country can barely think about putting gas in the tank as it is?? you need a system compatible with ALL of the mfgs systems, you need it to be retrofittable into 57 chevy's, 66 volkswagons, 23 fords etc... then you need to figure out who/how your going to fix it if/when it breaks..what do you do with hybreds??? if its running on electric it's using no fuel...

 

[Wobble]

you theroy takes into account new cars..... how many people in this country can barely think about putting gas in the tank as it is?? you need a system compatible with ALL of the mfgs systems, you need it to be retrofittable into 57 chevy's, 66 volkswagons, 23 fords etc... then you need to figure out who/how your going to fix it if/when it breaks..what do you do with hybreds??? if its running on electric it's using no fuel...

Agreed, they will get them somehow. I read in a trade magazine that insurance companies were looking at insurance by the mile for gps tracked vehicles. Now that's a scary thought.

 

[Geronimo36]

Very short sighted to come up with a per-mile tax.... It basicallly negates the reason to have fuel efficient vehicles... I doubt it will ever pass.

 

[BBB725]

relax.. feasibly impossible.

1. you would have to outfit every vehicle in the country with a gps transponder.
2. second you would have to have each device hard wired into a vehicle (if you just pluged it into the cigarette lighter it would be to easily defeated)
3. who is/how are you going to keep rack of all the information?? process it?? send out bills?? actually collect ad process the money?? process errors??
4. how will you maintain the vehicle systems??

One problem with your point, you are thinking like a business man and want it to be profitable, remember we're dealing with the government they won't care if it loses money:sifone:

 

[high-tide]

The technology already exists....."on star" and it is now owned by government motors or in the past tense gm.

 

[LaughingCat]

no doubt, written by some jack-off, high as a kite and super paranoid. Reminds me of the "they're going to tax us 5 cents for every email" B.S.