Interesting article describing Oregon's plan's to convert from a gas tax on a per gallon basis to a per mile traveled basis.

Darn fuel efficient cars owners aren't paying their fair share.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/na...1M1MVEaUNYXg+g

I dislike the idea of having a black box in any way, shape or form, that allows others to see where I've been driving. No, I don't have anything to hide either.

Just a bad idea, IMHO.

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Works for me since this would also lead to other studies that could have payoffs in traffic engineering and transportation efficiency. First comes data, then comes insight, and finally, effective action.

Bob Wilson

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You're obviously much more optimistic than I am about how this wonderful data will be used. Why not add bicyclist and pedestrians to this cool taxation, I mean "data collection" idea.

Keep it simple.

I tend to dislike the whole idea as well. I just don't like Big Brother knowing my whereabouts every hour of every day. There is no need for it and there is no telling how the information could be abused. It also seems ridiculous that they would spend what must be a tremendous amount of money to implement this system. If they need money they can increase the fuel tax as consumption declines, which costs the state nothing. Someone else brought up an excellent point, which is that the heavier, fuel-hungry vehicles are liable to do more damage to the roads than lightweight, fuel-efficient vehicles. In that respect the fuel tax is already ideal, and this new system is simply idiotic.

I still think we're not looking at the big picture. An integrated transportation system needs credible data. This proposal is not just a plot by gas-hogs to tease hybrid-electric owners but a serious approach to total transportation efficiency. Look at all of the benefits:

• Adding a speed and position log would make supervision of drivers easier. Adding a printer and voice module and it could issue the citations without having to pull the car over to the side.
• Excellent records for accident investigations. Just dump the records from all vehicles into a judgement computer and render the verdict.
• A gas tax discount based upon the driver exceeding EPA ratings. Thus even Hummers getting say 12.5 MPG could get a break.

Yes, this 'briar patch' is just what we need to throw not only the hybrid-electric owners into but all cars, even the older ones. A standalone unit driven by the cigarette lighter would work perfectly and could be easily retrofitted to older cars. Yes, the best way to ensure success is for hybrid-electric owners to talk up the benefits of a total transportation information system where every car reports what the driver did.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

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My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

One of the more detailed articles I read a while back about the system proposed for California actually took all that into account. It kept track of lots of obscenely complicated formulas, including driving speed, vehicle weight, and so on to determine taxation rate proportional to the amount of wear and tear made to the roads. They also proposed charging about 4 times as much to drive during rush hour traffic to discourage that (this is why this system is a bad idea, they could "tax" just about any behavior imaginable once the system is in place without even a decent reason, just to raise more money)

One of the things that makes this less valid though is that most of the money from the gas tax at least in California never even goes to roads at all, most of it just goes to various pork barrel projects rather than fixing/building roads anyway. If they don't have enough money to fix roads, they should just use the current gas taxes.

I'm glad to see your just having fun with us.

Please don't link to sites (such as NYT) that require registration, free or otherwise. It's a pain in the neck, and only encourages other news sites to do likewise. If the same article isn't available from a "regular" source, then copy/paste as much relevant text as necessary into your post. Thanks.

And finding alternate sources shouldn't be a problem. I was able to access this, this, this and this just by Googling "Oregon gas tax".

Note also that Wash. state is considering this tracking system not to replace the current gas tax, but on top of it.