Feds, states want to track drivers’ mileage
By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — As America’s road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.
The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America’s major roads.
The usually dull arena of highway planning has suddenly spawned intense debate and colorful alliances. Libertarians have joined environmental groups in lobbying to allow government to use the little boxes to keep track of the miles you drive, and possibly where you drive them — then use the information to draw up a tax bill.
The tea party is aghast. The American Civil Liberties Union is deeply concerned, too, raising a variety of privacy issues.
And while Congress can’t agree on whether to proceed, several states are not waiting. They are exploring how, over the next decade, they can move to a system in which drivers pay per mile of road they roll over. Thousands of motorists have already taken the black boxes, some of which have GPS monitoring, for a test drive.
It’s a slippery slope with government, and you know that once they track your mileage, they’ll be tracking you. Don’t think for a moment either that they’ll eliminate the gas tax.
Government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem.
Amen! We already have too much government interference. We don’t need any more!
“Libertarians have joined environmental groups in lobbying to allow government to use the little boxes to keep track of the miles you drive, and possibly where you drive them — then use the information to draw up a tax bill”
THAT is an out and out lie. No libertarian would back a statist project like this. Doesn’t even make sense. It’s “journalism” like this that gives writers a bad name. I read this article a couple of days ago, and beyond that statement, there’s no follow-up. Who exactly are these “libertarians” who want to tax people? They don’t exist.
So, you want roads for free?
Got it.
cosa, that is a juvenile argument.
Americans want fairly priced roads just like we want a fairly priced and respectful government and I din’t think we are getting either.
We need to get the sludge out.
User fees are fine. Toll roads come to mind. Gas taxes aren’t bad. But “black boxes” that track people are a serious invasion of privacy. Way too much potential for abuse.
But our government would never dream of abusing its power, would it? *snort*
Let’s be clear about one fact – these little spy boxes won’t help “road planners” one bit. Caltrans, NDOT and all the other highway departments have plenty of resources available to them today to know where traffic flows, how much and when. What these spy boxes will do is enable government to tax you on the number of miles you drive each year based on your driving history (conveniently recorded and instantly telecommunicated to some new bureaucracy, no doubt). You see, government tax collectors are beginning to fret over lost gas revenue due to improvements in fleet fuel economy. All you Prius owners out there are doing a disservice to the highway maintenance funds by driving high efficiency vehicles. You thought you were saving the planet but what you are doing instead is destroying government income streams.
The other purpose for these boxes, if you are a conspiracy theorist, is to track your comings and goings for “security” reasons — Fourth Amendment be damned.
So who pays for this new technology – you guessed it – the folks “fortunate” enough to drive to school or work (the lucky 85 percenters) – and oh, what a nasty group you are with all of your unnecessary Sunday drives, weekend excursions to grandma’s house and bourgeois vacation destinations like Lake Tahoe. I predict that the new tax structure for these spy boxes will mirror how water and electricity are charged today. Exceed a certain number of miles travelled in a given time and WHAM, you get double taxed. Behavior control at its finest. Don’t be surprised at future government press releases advocating this tax in order to save us all from climate change.
How about a control box, provided by the government to every auto manufacturer for free, which is installed in every hybrid and alternative fuel vehicle.
Think of it like a kiosk for paid parking. When you want to drive you put in your credit card and buy time (time being miles). The money goes straight to the IRS through your card. They could charge $2 per hour to drive.
When your time runs out, the motor turns off until you swipe your credit card again.
This really is a dilemma since the government model to pay for the roads is based on gas tax and they have kept demanding the auto manufacturers make cars which use less gas. Couldn’t they foresee the impact of this program?
I don’t always agree with Gus’ posts but in this instance he is absolutely correct. I worked for a very large water utility that went to smart meters. When the pilot program was proposed I was asked my opinion. I was told that beyond the obvious savings in meter reading, the water company would be able to monitor an individuals water use habit (including when you flushed your toilet) and send you a letter advising you to modify your water use habits and penalize those who didn’t correct their behavior. I objected loudly because I believed the privacy violation exceeded any meter reading cost savings. I was over ruled.
Seeing the divisiveness in the responding posts To this article, I have to comment.
This is a perfect example of divide and conquer. It’s time liberals, conservatives, and libertarians realized how the folks with the money are manipulating us to fight each other while they quietly go about taking money out of our pockets and putting it into their’s.
The more digitized our lives become, the more controlled we become.
United we stand, divided we fall!
Gus, that is about the most intelligent, concise comment I have seen on this site. You are correct.
Gus & Gus’ Neighbor; excellent comments. Thank you.
ummmmmm, the government already tracks our mileage. Its called an odometer. It was invented a few hundred years ago by this Italian guy maybe you heard of him, Leonardo DaVinci. So they already have a pretty long track record of being used and its already a felony to tamper with them.
If they want, the government already knows what kind of gas mileage every vehicle gets and can tax individual cars appropriately. Gas guzzlers pay less use off their odometers, and an electric vehicle pays more for example.
The individual departments of transportation already know what roads are heavily used and what maintenance they need. How? Surveys that are cheap and history.
No need to add all this cost of black boxes, GPS, adding yet another expensive bureaucracy. Any politician telling you otherwise has sold out to some lobbyist.
We already pay fees for roads. License, registration. We also pay a use fee based on miles. More miles = more gas purchased = more gas taxes.
I have to laugh at the people who scream that chipping our pets, cars, or even ourselves would be an extreme breach of privacy, yet carry an activated cell phone on their person 24/7. I’m not advocating any of the previous, just making an observation.
John, the problem is that while our mileage driven is the same or more, the amount of highway taxes collected thru the gas tax has decreased because our mileage per gallon has gone up by a lot. Maybe a better way is to have people put down their odometer mileage at registration and tax on that make a huge fine for the fibbers. Have police check odometers on traffic stops
Add the fee to the gal-price: You drive a lot- you pay a lot! BUT ONLY if you outlaw studded tires and chains and require Wintertires (like most countries around the world, or you get a big ticket-more revenue for our roads!!) They are the ones ruining our roads!!
Those of us who love the winter time have a 4-wheel drive vehicle. NO SPYBOXES-period!!!
I hope the states are listening/reading.Please.
Relo, they already do that for commercial vehicles in Nevada. Because I do not have Nv plates and my trucks are over 10,000 gvw I am required to get a “Trip Permit” each and every time I enter the state. It is $5.00 to the state, $29.00 to the issuing third party company and 15 cents to the state for every mile round trip. All of this is on top of the taxes I pay at the pump. If the NHP pulls you over and you do not have the permit the fine is $120.00. Ca needs to get on the stick and have the CHP do to Nv what Nv is doing to us, this is a real cash cow. This is a Federal requirement for all work trucks over 10,000 gvw and the NHP is only implementing the program. Let me know if you need more info on this.