The movements of cars will be tracked using satellite technologies, for which, apparently, all vehicles will have to be equipped, in bulk, with something like GPS taximeters. The mileage tax is expected to be collected, like the current gasoline tax, directly at gas stations. The computer will request information about the miles traveled from the car's "black box", divide it into categories (during rush hours the mileage is more expensive, and outside the home state or in areas without GPS communication, it is completely free) and, apparently, include the resulting amount in the cost of the gasoline sold.
For now, state authorities plan to conduct a preliminary experiment to test this scheme: 280 volunteers will be hired, who will be required to equip their cars with on-board computers with GPS technology and refuel exclusively at the two gas stations in Portland where mileage-reading devices are installed. Implementing this system on the scale of all of Oregon will clearly require quite large capital investments: merely equipping gas stations with computer systems alone should cost a pretty penny. However, there is no other way: the rise in gasoline prices and the fight for clean air are tragically affecting the condition of the road surface.
Taxes on motor fuel levied by the states go primarily to the construction of new highways and the repair of old roads. Apparently, while America was a country of big cars, this was quite sufficient. But gasoline is expensive nowadays, and Americans are switching to economical subcompacts. In addition, motorists already have enough expenses - they need to pass a technical inspection, buy tires and wheels, and pay insurance. So the fight against harmful emissions has undermined the gasoline source of tax collectors. Not only small city cars with weak engines are becoming fashionable, but also hybrid cars. According to The New York Times, due to government policy aimed at reducing oil consumption, already by 2025 gasoline consumption per kilometer could decrease by 15-25%. Optimists, however, believe that cars with economical engines will fill the roads of America much faster, and these figures will be achieved by about 2015.
But no matter how progress develops in saving petroleum products, the road funds will not see a bright future, and the shortage of money for repairing highways will only increase. And in order to avoid the tragic situation where hordes of hybrid microcars will overcome potholes and ruts that not every SUV can cross, Oregon experimenters tried to abandon gasoline dependence. In the hope that no technical progress will be able to teach cars to reduce the distance between point A and point B. True, some critics have a natural question: how now to fight for reducing emissions and call on people to switch from voracious jeeps to modest city cars, if one of the main financial incentives - the gasoline tax - disappears?
In addition, notes Vremya Novostei, Americans also have another terrible suspicion: when the computer at every gas station reads from the car all information about the path traveled, the authorities, if desired, will be able to attempt to obtain data on the movements of private individuals. Satellite technologies, as is known, allow tracking the movement of a car with an accuracy of several meters. The collection of such data, naturally, is a daring invasion of citizens' personal lives. However, the developers of the mileage tax believe that the information read by computers will still be strictly limited: computers will receive only the total amount of taxable miles.