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| Opportunities & Exposures: Policy |
Brave New Highway
Annalee Newitz
08/01/2005
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In the future, before filling your gas tank, you may have to disclose
everywhere you have driven to the government. When you visit the gas station,
electrical tracking devices in your car will send information to a smart gas
pump that will register how many miles and where you have traveled. The pump
will then add a tax to your purchase based on how many miles you drove in
different regions. It might also penalize you for adding to traffic congestion
by driving during peak hours.
This scenario may sound like something out of a Paranoid Science fiction movie, but it is already becoming a reality. State and
federal proposals aimed at revamping tax revenue collection for roads, bridges
and public transportation may put the government under the hood of your car.
Environmentalists object to proposals for mileage taxes because they could
discourage people from buying hybrids. After all, why concern yourself with fuel
efficiency and low emissions if you are paying the same at the pump as someone
driving a gas-guzzler? Yet, the mileage tax system would poison more than our
natural environment: It would pollute our social and political atmosphere by
sacrificing personal privacy.
Traditionally, taxes on gasoline have
provided the money used to build and maintain roads, bridges and other
transportation infrastructure. The rationale has been that the more you drive,
the more gas you use, and therefore, the more you should pay to keep the roads
in good shape. The problem with this system is that new hybrid automobiles use
far less gas than a typical SUV, so the amount of gas you buy is no longer a
good measure of how many miles you are traveling on public highways. This is
where the mileage tax comes in. Instead of taxing drivers based on how much gas
they burn, a mileage system would tax them on how far they drive, where they go
and when.
Oregon has launched a $1.25 million mileage tax pilot program. In
California, the director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, Joan Borucki, has
said she would support such a plan for that state, although Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger has, to date, avoided making a firm endorsement of such a highly
controversial plan—one that could add to his current political woes. The idea is
gaining ground on the national front also. On April 19, the Senate Finance
Committee appointed a 15-member commission to study the viability of a national
mileage tax scheme. Over the next two years, this commission will try to
determine if the mileage tax or a similar program could raise the amount of
money required to maintain the nation’s roads, bridges and public transit.
Winston and Julia Go Driving
Under a mileage tax system, all car owners
would be forced to install surveillance devices in their vehicles. Oregon’s test
rollout, which will be the nation’s first prototype program, requires GPS
devices and transmitters that relay information from the odometer and GPS device
to the gas pump. First, consider what it would mean to have a GPS device in your
car. Such devices communicate with satellites in order to triangulate your
location on a map; they can track where you go to the gym, where you shop, what
clubs you frequent and whether you prefer side streets or the main roads. They
can also tell how fast you drive.
Under a mileage tax scheme, each time you
stop for gas, your travel history will be transmitted to a database somewhere.
You have no control over whether this information is saved or deleted. If it is
saved—and it probably will be—government workers at all levels could access it.
It could be sold to the private sector for marketing purposes or even used
against you in a frivolous lawsuit, an acrimonious divorce proceeding or worse.
A recent court decision in Washington state held that law enforcement
officers must get warrants—court orders that require a great deal of evidence
and judicial oversight—in order to install GPS devices on vehicles to track
suspects. In other words, the devices are considered so privacy-invasive that a
judge ruled they can only be installed under the most extreme circumstances. The
mileage tax would put a GPS device in every car, allowing innocent motorists to
be tracked like criminals.
We need a better tax system to maintain our
crucial transportation resources. However, we have to come up with something
better than one that requires citizens to invite strangers into their cars.Annalee Newitz is a policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
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