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Big rigs already pay per mile, but it has nothing to do with GPS tracking. Which makes a good point, if trucks can pay per mile w/o GPS tracking, why couldn't cars?
A: Its not about the $$ so much as it is about the Big Brother type control.

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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You fail to see the difference between an OnStar unit that provides directions and phone calls and a government mandated system that could track your every move and dozens of other variables.

Are you really ok with the government knowing where you are going, who is in your car (RFID licenses will likely have their info transmitted through the GPS unit) and whether or not you are speeding? When is a huge privacy invasion enough for you?

(Perhaps you are an ODOT or Federal worker who had to add the one Pro comment, seeing as how no one else is for this)

The state does NOT need to keep conducting research on this, in case you have not noticed, the state of Oregon has a budget deficit of 830 million!

You talk as someone who has a lot more trust in government than most of us.
Maybe you are also ok with warrantless wiretaps.

Most people believe the government should only know things about a person they have a legitimate need to know.

They passed that line quite a few years ago.

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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This crazy idea is Big Brother through and through. We have a completely fair system now, with the people burning the most gas paying the most tax. There should be an incentive to drive high mileage cars, and electric cars. But like one caller mentioned, in the last twenty years overall mileage has only increased about one and a half miles per gallon. That's it! So don't buy the argument about how declining revenue from the gas tax makes this new idea necessary. It is simply not true. Not only has the revenue hardly dropped, how hard is it to raise the gas tax?

So why would they go to all this expense to implement a costly new system? (which by the way could be very easily defeated by someone with very basic tech skills)) Because it is not about fairness at all - the current system is very fair - it is a method by which anyone could be tracked anywhere. Like many callers said, don't believe that they will keep their word as far as the information being private. To quote a caller, "with the flip of a switch, they can gather all kinds of information".

I would like to see the ACLU and other groups get much more up in arms about this.

What is really offensive is they (the government) must think we are stupid.

1. They say GPS doesn't track your exact location. That is exactly how GPS works! Does anyone own a Garmin out there? It will easily tell you where you are within 50 ft.

2. They say a mileage system would be more fair because of all the electric and other high mileage vehicles on the road. Give me a break! There are not that many cars like that on the road now, nor will there be many anytime soon. And even the mileage of the Hybrids is no better in most cases than a VW TDI. ( the TDI's is likely better!)

And wasn't part of the idea with the gas tax to encourage more high miles per gallon vehicles? If we go to a mileage based system there is no incentive. (unless you try an impossibly complex system of different rates for every make of car - expect a long line of appeals, and busy lawyers)

3. Only 35 million to convert all the gas stations in Oregon? What are they smoking? It must be good stuff. It could easily be 3 times that much, and there would be a need for an oversight and appeals board. The ongoing cost would be quite high as well. And ODOT's head man says it is all because the gas tax will need often adjustments? So what! Tag it too the CPI. What a weak argument. How stupid do they think we are?

4. Again, Oregon thinks they are on the forefront of solving some problem that doesn't really exist. Also, any thinking person would quickly notice this could not be done state by state. A patchwork of regulations, with some states still on the old system, would be chaos.

This is a rather obvious step in the direction of a "Surveillance Society".

Why they want to track our every move I can't say, but the trend is clear. RFID chips in the new drivers license are the other way they will track people, in the name of "homeland security".

Don't fall for it. The government (or corporate interests) has no right to know our every move, or where we are at any one time.

The right to privacy is inherent in not only our constitution, but also in our belief of the most basic human rights.

posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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