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Taxing Drivers by the Mile
baraka
Posts: 1,268
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/14/eveningnews/main674120.shtml
(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 fellow researcher David Porter 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.
(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 fellow researcher David Porter 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.
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance,
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein
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Comments
OH HELL NO!!!
First of all, he got rid of a used car and bought a hybrid to save in gas money. Although he did have a BMW, which might bring the numbers closer together, it's hard to believe a new vehicle like that would justify his gas savings - especially since it is implied that his payment was already pretty high.
Also with regard to gas mileage I see it like this:
BMW:
$500 per gas a month = 166 gallons at $3/gallon.
2000 miles divided by 166 gallons yields 12 MPG with his old car. He was REALLY getting mileage that poor?
Hybrid:
$200 per gas a month = 66 gallons at $3/gallon
2000 miles divided by 66 gallons yields 30 MPG with the hybrid. While that's a big improvement over that BMW (was there a whole in the tank of that thing?), it certainly not much better than you can do in a non-hybrid car.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
I don't feel comfortable about that at all...
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Because somewhere someone is going to make shit loads of money off of a system like this and that someone probably has strong ties to some politician.
A GPS tracking system would be quite inexpensive to maintain, though I'm sure the government would spend about 100 times what it actually should cost.
R.i.p. My Dad - May 28, 2007
R.i.p. Black Tail (cat) - Sept. 20, 2008
i was thinking the same thing. i mean, i hate the idea of paying a toll on a road, but the tolls on I95 aren't really that bad.
~Michael Bolton
I don't know how you guys pay you're tolls, but in australia, victoria especially, it's all done automatically. You have an e-tag which you keep in your car, and every time it goes past particular points along the road you get tolled. you pay at the end of the month.
and if you use the road less frequently, you can pay a one off toll at most servos and not worry about the tag.
12 people may make the one decision but that doesn't make it right.
Free Rob Farquharson, wrongfully imprisoned!!
www.factbeforetheory.net
And no to paying an extra tax at the gas pump based on our driving. I can see that getting out of hand and having to fork over $300 with our $20 gas bill. No thank you.
I'd be okay with tolls and IPass (automated toll billing) at least there I know when I'm being charged and how much.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=645841891
yeah its not that much, more the annoyance of having to slow down and throw change into baskets frequently. (I live upstate so I don't do EZ-Pass, though I've considered it)
R.i.p. My Dad - May 28, 2007
R.i.p. Black Tail (cat) - Sept. 20, 2008
Everytime another election comes around suddenly all the roads get paved.
running effecient dependable and on time public transportation where the public could or would use it might be a good idea. Making the fair easy to pay would be a good idea.