This is so wrong

erik_kosberg · #1 02-15-2005, 10:12 AM

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...in674120.shtml

*emeleel* · #2 02-15-2005, 10:25 AM

All I'm getting is the home page of CBSNews.com.

**Joubert**[$] · #3 02-15-2005, 10:35 AM

I don't see anything either. Granted, CBS can often be wrong, but I think you probably meant something else.

erik_kosberg · #4 02-15-2005, 10:50 AM

Quote:

States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile

(CBS)*College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000 miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his monthly gas bill once topped his car payment.

"I was paying about $500 a month," says Just.

So Just bought a fuel efficient hybrid and said goodbye to his gas-guzzling BMW.

And what kind of mileage does he get?

"The EPA estimate is 60 in the city, 51 on the highway," says Just.

And that saves him almost $300 a month in gas. It's great for Just but bad for the roads he's driving on, because he also pays a lot less in gasoline taxes which fund highway projects and road repairs. As more and more hybrids hit the road, cash-strapped states are warning of rough roads ahead.

Officials in car-clogged California are so worried they may be considering a replacement for the gas tax altogether, replacing it with something called "tax by the mile."

Seeing tax dollars dwindling, neighboring Oregon has already started road testing the idea.

"Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it's as simple as that," says engineer David Kim.

Kim and his team at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, every car would need one.

"So, if you drive 10 miles you will pay a certain fee which will be, let's say, one tenth of what someone pays if they drive 100 miles," says Kim.

The new tax would be charged each time you fill up. A computer inside the gas pump would communicate with your car's odometer to calculate how much you owe.

The system could also track how often you drive during rush hour and charge higher fees to discourage peak use. That's an idea that could break the bottleneck on California's freeways.

"We're getting a lot of interest from other states," says Jim Whitty of the Oregon Department of Transportation. "They're watching what we're doing.

"Transportation officials across the country are concerned about what's going to happen with the gas tax revenues."

Privacy advocates say it's more like big brother riding on your bumper, not to mention a disincentive to buy fuel-efficient cars.

"It's not fair for people like me who have to commute, and we don't have any choice but take the freeways," says Just. "We shouldn't have to be taxed."

But tax-by-mile advocates say it may be the only way to ensure that fuel efficiency doesn't prevent smooth sailing down the road.

Um, how about just raising the gas tax?

*emeleel* · #5 02-15-2005, 10:52 AM

Quote:

"So, if you drive 10 miles you will pay a certain fee which will be, let's say, one tenth of what someone pays if they drive 100 miles," says Kim.

Nice to see that state officials can do basic math.

**jgibson2**[$] · #6 02-15-2005, 11:50 AM

Aside from everything else that's wrong with this, it doesn't take into account the weight of the different vehicles -- which does have a bearing on road wear. The gas tax may not be perfect, but bigger vehicles will always use more gas.

realtraveller · #7 02-15-2005, 12:10 PM

Quote:

jgibson2 said

gas tax may not be perfect, but bigger vehicles will always use more gas.

I just don't believe the rationale for tax by the mile. We all drive and observe. How many Priuses do you see compared to SUVs? I see at least as many Hummers as Priuses. The gas that they are guzzling and the higher gas tax revenues as a result must more than compensate for the increase in the number of gas/electric hybrids.

Maybe the taxmen are looking down the road (pardon the pun) to the days of hydrogen cars, fully electric vehicles and the like. No more gas, no more gas taxes.

Really, there has to be some other explanation.

erik_kosberg · #8 02-15-2005, 12:30 PM

The idea of requiring all vehicles to have GPS units so that they can be continuously monitered should send all small-government Republicans running for their rifles. The idea of providing a disincentive to own fuel efficient vehicles is just crazy.

If funds are badly needed for roads, in the short- and medium-term, raising the gas tax is a no-brainer. If in the long-term gas consumption were to drop drastically, some other revenue source (income tax? licensing fee for vehicles based on fuel efficiency?) could be used.

realtraveller · #9 02-15-2005, 12:39 PM

Quote:

erik_kosberg said

The idea of requiring all vehicles to have GPS units so that they can be continuously monitered should send all small-government Republicans running for their rifles. The idea of providing a disincentive to own fuel efficient vehicles is just crazy.

If funds are badly needed for roads, in the short- and medium-term, raising the gas tax is a no-brainer. If in the long-term gas consumption were to drop drastically, some other revenue source (income tax? licensing fee for vehicles based on fuel efficiency?) could be used.

If we get to that point, the funds can be provided with no new technology and no invasion of privacy. It's an old idea....the toll road.

Freeways at rush hour have a higher toll. Vacant country roads have no or little toll. The 'tax' would relate directly to road usage which an income tax or license fee do not.

phoenixx · #10 02-15-2005, 01:00 PM

This screams wrong to me on a privacy level first, and an economic level second. I now live in New Hampshire. This is a state where you end up driving 25 miles of winding back country, fuel guzzling road to travel to a town 5 miles away on a map. The economy here already stinks, somehing like this would require the average citizen to have a second job just to afford to drive to the first one, it seems to me.

erik_kosberg · #11 02-15-2005, 01:38 PM

Toll roads make some sense for interstates and other limited access roads but I can't see how they could work for city streets or suburban multiple access roads.

murasaki · #12 02-15-2005, 01:50 PM

I think the best solution to this is to provide convenient and cheap public transportation. Give me a way to get to work that has pick-up/drop-off points within walking distance of my home and my work and runs during the peak hours of the day and I will always choose it over driving myself.

realtraveller · #13 02-15-2005, 08:03 PM

Quote:

erik_kosberg said

Toll roads make some sense for interstates and other limited access roads but I can't see how they could work for city streets or suburban multiple access roads.

San Francisco is considering requiring motorists to purchase a daily pass to drive on city streets like London.

How this would work with interstate 101 going right up Van Ness Avenue in the city's center to Lombard Street to the GG Bridge is anyone's guess.

Maybe if just confined to the financial district.

http://sfexaminer.com/articles/205/0..._ne01_toll.txt

shejeeves · #14 02-15-2005, 10:43 PM

WOW, That is semi-disturbing to me. I'm going away to college next January, and I plan to take my car, my 1993 Mazda 323 with me. I get about 28 city miles, probably 34-ish highway. I plan on coming back to see my family often, And the college I selected is only 240 some miles away. Plus, I have family in a nearby town that I was planning on living with. I would still have to commute about 40 miles round trip each day. And I just started driving recently, about 7 months ago. ( i'm young for college, i know.) I hope that driving does not become a chore to me, considering it's a pretty new pleasure for me.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #15 02-16-2005, 07:25 AM

Quote:

shejeeves said

WOW, That is semi-disturbing to me. I'm going away to college next January, and I plan to take my car, my 1993 Mazda 323 with me. I get about 28 city miles, probably 34-ish highway. I plan on coming back to see my family often, And the college I selected is only 240 some miles away. Plus, I have family in a nearby town that I was planning on living with. I would still have to commute about 40 miles round trip each day. And I just started driving recently, about 7 months ago. ( i'm young for college, i know.) I hope that driving does not become a chore to me, considering it's a pretty new pleasure for me.

Welcome! Don't worry, it's been my experience that traffic makes driving miserable, not distance, so as long as you're not always stuck in rush-hour traffic, it won't be bad.