What do all you CA drivers think of this plan?

[scaeagles]

Here's the story:

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

Basically, CA is considering a "tax by the mile" system. Cars are being outfitted with global positioning software that will track miles and where people are driving - higher traffic areas may equal a bigger tax. Apparently the software would communicate with the gas pump and add the tax when you fill up.

Hmmm....I drive very little - I work from a home office and we live two miles from the school my wife teaches at and my kids go to. But I have a bad feeling about this. Not to mention I live in AZ, but we have a tendency to try stupid things that CA has tried all the time.

[BarTopDancer]

Good luck with that. This sounds a lot like charging SUVs and trucks more for gas. That never panned out. There are people who commute 100+ miles a day to get to work. You can blame the housing costs on most of that. To tax people because they don't live close to their jobs and they don't want to take the [less than mediocore] public transportation system is insane.

[Betty]

Put a GPS on everyone's car?! Psh! NOT! It's none of anyone's business where I go and what I do. The privacy invasion is unreal.

[SacTown Chronic]

Really. I'd effing walk before I'd let 'em track my every movement. Of course, they all ready are.....not that I'm paranoid or anything.

[Moonliner]

Not to argue the side of "The Man" or anything, but just for clarity.

A GSP receiver, like the one mentioned in the article, is not a transmitter. It does not relay your position. It's just a smart odometer. When you pull up to a service station it will spit out how many miles you traveled. It could not be used lojack/onstar style to track where you are or have been.

It only needs the GPS element so that miles driven outside of the state don't count against you.

[SacTown Chronic]

Tool! Tool of the government!

[mousepod]

I'm not a fan of the system for the reasons mentioned here.
As far as the GPS system is concerned, here's an interesting story:
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/20...0703006631.htm

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by mousepod

I'm not a fan of the system for the reasons mentioned here.
As far as the GPS system is concerned, here's an interesting story:
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/20...0703006631.htm

That's still not the same system being proposed by CA (as I understand it). If it was ONLY capable of recording milage+time of day how would you feel about it?

Also, my experience is telling me this is "poison pill" politics. First float an idea that's so outragous eveyone freaks then folllow up later with a somewhat softer version that still riases taxes but is not quite as offensive.

[Prudence]

They've been testing this in the Seattle area, too. The idea is to charge you based on when/where/how far you drive. "Our" project is a bit more complicated than Moonliner describes for CA -- as the Seattle-area plan would charge people not only based on how many miles driven, but whether they were driven in peak areas during peak times.

Aside from the usual privacy concerns (including how alleged malfunctions would be handled,) it's yet another regressive tax proposal for the good ol' Evergreen state.

In theory, these proposals are supposed to encourage the use of public transit and/or off-peak commuting. The problems with that (here) are: a) public transit both sucks and blows, particularly from the suburbs; b) housing prices here are skyrocketing. Just today an article in the Seattle P-I notes that a typical first-time home buyer only makes 2/3 of the income necessary to make mortgage payments in a starter home. Of necessity, most of us average flunkies live in the suburbs; and c) average flunkies are the least likely to have flexible schedules or permission to telecommute, as we have to be present in service capacities, and thus will need to travel major commuter routes at the major commuter times.

But the privacy concerns remain the most frightening aspect. I don't care what its initial limits are; I care what some entity that doesn't have my best interests at heart will decide to start using it for. If they're tracking where you drive, as in the WA pilot project, how long until your insurance company declines claims for damages incurred in high crime or high accident areas? Or your employeer discovers you've been patronizing the competition (like the recent beer case -- the brands escape me)?

I swear I don't walk around with a tinfoil hat to keep the gov't from reading my thoughts. I'm my father's daughter (and he considers a personal document shredder an ideal housewarming gift.)

Honestly I don't understand why they don't just increase the gas tax if they need additional transportation revenue (or an incentive to carpool.) It's an existing system and far less intrusive into my personal affairs.

[wendybeth]

I think it's asanine, which means they will probably do it.