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outdated system for funding America's major roads.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.
Several states are not waiting on Congress to make a decision. 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.
"This really is a must for our nation. It is
not a matter of something we might choose to do," said Hasan Ikhrata,
executive director of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which is
planning for the state to start tracking miles driven by every California
motorist by 2025. "There is going to be a change in how we pay these
taxes. The technology is there to do it."
The push comes as the country's Highway Trust Fund,
financed with taxes Americans pay at the gas pump, is broke. Americans don't
buy as much gas as they used to. Cars get many more miles to the gallon. The
federal tax itself, 18.4 cents per gallon, hasn't gone up in 20 years.
Politicians are loath to raise the tax even one penny when gas prices are high.
"The gas tax is just not sustainable,"
said Lee Munnich, a transportation policy expert at the University of
Minnesota. His state recently put tracking devices on 500 cars to test out a
pay-by-mile system. "This works out as the most logical alternative over
the long term," he said.
It is no surprise that the idea appeals to urban
liberals, as the taxes could be rigged to change driving patterns in ways that
could help reduce congestion and greenhouse gases, for example. California
planners are looking to the system as they devise strategies to meet the goals
laid out in the state's ambitious global warming laws.
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