At 07:53 AM 9/27/2012, Richard Schwinn wrote:
Don't think that taxation will stop at automobile use. In a budget meeting a few years ago, representative Scott Gunderson was fishing around for ways for bicycles to help fund the highway system. Who knows, secure cycle computers may become a way to tax us. Either way, I can see all sorts of ways to circumvent or minimize such a tax, starting with manipulating mileage.
I'm leaning along Richard's lines. Some insurance companies have already been testing GPS/driver behavior tracking (distance, speed, braking, cornering, etc.,) to see if they can set rates based on that. American Family is one. I participated in their test just to learn what it was all about, and my conclusion was that it was a failure. You could get into a car drunk and there was nothing in their testing that would have detected that. As Richard indicates, people will find ways to defeat this, because their wallets are involved. They already know how to turn back old-tech odometers. Going high-tech is just the next step. I am highly skeptical that mandatory GPS tracking of people and their cars will ever become a fact of life. This idea raises all sorts of privacy issues, including whether people will consent to being tracked. If you ask them in those terms, I think you know what the answer will be. I can envision massive litigation in this area, with serious constitutional issues in the forefront, and with politicians scurrying fast for cover.
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