Oregon DOT pilots program to track and tax mileage
Living on Earth mentioned an Oregon DOT sponsored project to track the mileage that motorists drive on Oregon roads and use the data to institute a use-based road tax to replace the hefty state gasoline tax. Oregon, like all other states, charges a state tax on every gallon of gasoline sold on top of the $.18 federal tax per gallon. The states use this money to fund the maintenance of roads and bridges. Many states are noticing decreasing revenue with this model due to the increase in hybrid and fuel-efficient car sales.
Oregon DOT has been funding a project at Oregon State University (also mentioned in GPS World) as a potential solution to the decreasing revenue from gasoline taxes. The proposed program uses a combination of existing GPS and radio technology to tax the motorist for the miles driven every time they refill their fuel tank. This is how it works:
- The GPS receiver and the odometer are used together to determine how many miles were driven inside Oregon’s borders
- A radio transmitter transmits the mileage data to the gas pump when you fill up
- The mileage data is used to calculate your usage tax and you are charged the usage tax instead of the flat per gallon state tax
I see a couple of problems with this approach. First, consumers bought the fuel efficient cars to avoid the high fuel bills. This effectively attempts to raise the tax on the small amount of fuel they do purchase to equal the tax on the fuel that SUVs and other gas guzzlers are charged. The fuel bills will probably still be lower, but it hardly seems fair. Besides, it doesn’t take into account that small cars cause less wear and tear on roads than trucks and SUVs.
Second, there could be all kinds of privacy issues with a system like this — so break out your tin foil hat. In order to not violate privacy, the system would have to have no memory of the last GPS position (so as to not be able to track your path) and would have to transmit nothing unique that would identify the vehicle (and therefore the driver) at the pump. The Oregon State researchers assure that the first point is true, but don’t address the second. Many drivers already forgo their right to purchase gas anonymously by paying with their credit cards, but for those privacy conscious consumers who pay with cash to remain anonymous this system could raise a big issue. Even if you pay cash, if your car transmits any sort of unique identifier to the pump you are no longer making an anonymous purchase. Your privacy might be being violated, even to the extent that your approximate routes and destinations might be able to be deduced because where you buy gas (and how frequently) is known.
Of course, should this program enter production in Oregon the units that track mileage would be locked down very tightly to prevent consumers from tampering with them in order to not get a tax break. This could effectively make them very difficult to audit for privacy concerns. Can you really trust that the radio transmitter isn’t broadcasting identifying information or that the GPS unit wasn’t tracking your path? Even if it isn’t violating your privacy in any of those ways it almost certainly knows when and where you entered the state of Oregon. It isn’t hard to see a judge allowing law enforcement to access that data, and for that reason it is hard to believe that the units wouldn’t be collecting just a little bit more information than is being admitted. Hopefully if the program does enter production in Oregon it will be optional to participate (afterall there is already a system in place for taxing gas sales) and the units that calculate the taxes will be open enough for privacy audits.
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