New ways to tax your driving/riding/ryding

[Brunswick]

Our government is actually looking into the feasibility of tracking every vehicle on the road by GPS and charging you by the mile driven, and possibly by the roads taken and time of day you drive.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/18/news...dex.htm?hpt=T2

[Bob Denman]

Great! Now I'm just gonna have to walk to the station with my 2 six-gallon cans... Maybe the excercise will be good for me!

[Firefly]

Interesting idea - won't sit well with people due to the possible tracking of us. As more cars become electric and use less gas - but still use the same roads that we do - they may have to do something to make sure those folks are paying their fair share to keep the roads we share in good shape.

A guy with the Nissan Leaf (100% electric) would be using the roads without paying any tax for their upkeep.

They've talked about this 'tracking mileage' for many years now - doubt it will get any further than just talk.

[retiredsquid]

I doubt it could get much mileage with any congress critter wanting to be elected or re-elected. Plus, I seriously doubt such a thing could pass scrutiny with the Supreme Court.

[BikerDoc]

This is just another one of a thousand ideas they claim to consider rather than to do their jobs Witch is to CUT SPENDING ON WORTHLESS PROJECTS. It won't fly on dozens of issues including it discriminates against rural drivers who must go further and it invades privacy beyond belief...

[LittleJohn]

... and it invades privacy beyond belief...

[M2Wild]

Great .... can't travel to the mistress anymore. Guess we will all have to be like the governator and keep the GF at home as a live-in or renter.

[mooneych]

Great .... can't travel to the mistress anymore. Guess we will all have to be like the governator and keep the GF at home as a live-in or renter.

TOO FUNNY!!!

[fastfraser]

I know there was talk up here on our toll roads of giving out tickets if you got to your toll exit way to fast .

[Bob Denman]

Great .... can't travel to the mistress anymore. Guess we will all have to be like the governator and keep the GF at home as a live-in or renter.

Maybe you could bicycle over to her place? Oh wait... The guv'ment's got cameras too!

[Brunswick]

Maybe you could bicycle over to her place? Oh wait... The guv'ment's got cameras too!

Bicycles cause wear and tear too. Especially with those skinny tires that concentrate the weight. They'll have to have RFID chips or something to track their mileage. I guess sneakers will need them too - afterall, we have to make the people who use the sidewalks actually pay for them.

[SpyderWolf]

I know there was talk up here on our toll roads of giving out tickets if you got to your toll exit way to fast .

There was a time that the Savannah River Site, a former nuclear weapons complex near my house, had barricades on SC State Hwy 125. If you were passing through you would stop at the barricade and they would hand you a card with a time stamped on it. The speed limit is 55 on that road. When you got to the other end, 20 mile stretch of nothing, you would stop and turn the card in. They would check your arrival time, and if you got there way faster than you should have they would write you a ticket. On the other hand getting there way later than you should have was worse, as you would be subject to questioning about your activities while on the road. By entering the barricade you were also subject to random searches of your vehicle.

In the end it was better to obey the speed limit on that stretch of road. Today it is a free for all, but they still patrol it and write lots of tickets.

[Fire911]

They were pushing for higher milage cars and alternate fuels. The effect is they do not collect as much taxes. Now they are scrambling to come up with an alternative means of raising cash for their pet projects. If they tax by miles I'm not sure what the next reaction will be but I'm sure they will have to devise another tax or three.

[Raptor]

I don't think this will get much past talk. It's a bunch of crap anyway. In Kalifornia we pay some of the highest insurance and reg. fees in the nation, but where is the money going to fix our roads? In some politico's pocket obviously, because they sure aren't fixing any roads or building new ones!

Given that, I find it impossible to believe that there will be any benefit to taxing us even more to ride the same decaying roads, knowing that they will continue to decay and not get repaired. Pretty vicious cycle.