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.
Pay-per-mile driving gets closer
· By: Drivers.com staff
· Date: 2007-10-09
Comments (3) Join conversation
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.
Comments
No., on Monday, 15. October 2007 at 12:16 PM
Orwells 1984, on Monday, 29. October 2007 at 11:52 PM
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
DK, on Tuesday, 30. October 2007 at 12:29 AM
Here's an interesting article about police misuse of databases.
http://www.copwatch.org/sheehanmichigandatabase.html
Scary if it's true
