If you were a city planner, what would you do about traffic congestion? Skymeter has an idea that might not be too popular with a lot of drivers: Charge people for the amount their cars pollute the environment. Using a combination of GPS units in cars and satellites, and lots of sophisticated billing technology, the company keeps track of your usage and helps insurance companies and city officials decide what to charge you for your filthy, energy-wasting ways.
Sure, it sounds draconian, but why not keep track of cars via satellite and charge them tolls according to their usage, rather than dealing with all those annoying toll booths that waste time, gasoline and create further traffic jams? Plus, the company could let your city charge lower tolls for driving at off-peak hours. Those same satellites can help rid us of parking meters, monitoring where people are parked, and then charging them according to time and location there, too.
Sounds like this idea might be met with considerable resistance, but maybe it could convince people to drive less or carpool. It seems like a fairer idea than that recently shelved plan to charge an entry fee into large cities like New York.
Via Skymeter
editor@dvice.com
By Multiuseless at 10:36 AM ON 04/23/08
Does this mean that the govt. is willing to abandon all of the highway taxes? Like the additional fees at D.M.V. the gas pump etc... That supposedly go to improving the highway conditions? Toll roads are useless. All they do is separate the Mercedes from the Toyotas
By snoop911 at 11:15 AM ON 04/23/08
Where is that picture from? German autobon?
By ghosty191 at 12:03 PM ON 04/23/08
Is this the prequel to "SkyNet" and is this how we separate the rich from the poor? How many average Joe's can afford GPS systems? Isn't it just too much control for the government to always tell us what's good for us?
By ridesearch at 5:33 PM ON 04/23/08
I have heard that RideSearch.com, a site that helps people find a carpool, is researching such a thing.
By murc at 6:08 PM ON 04/23/08
I cant believe that article tried to SPIN that as a good thing.!
I for one, dont want to be constantly tracked by my government. Its none of their business where I am and at what time, and how long I've been there.
Its called PRIVACY, and people (like Charlie White) seem to think its a good think to let it all go away.
I will never be tracked.
By okeribok at 5:38 AM ON 04/24/08
What an amazingly complicated idea. How about an extra tax on fuel?
By Bern Grush at 10:03 AM ON 05/29/08
MULIUSELESS:
They had better abandon fuel taxes. Fuel taxes cause congestion because they are regressive and do not distinguish among congested times and places (do some reading at Grushhour[dot]com). Many fuel taxes build stadiums and hospitals. Not roads. You are off about mercedes and toyotas. The poor are on the bus, congestion makes that worse. Free-access roads harms all of us, the poor, the most. Appropriate handle you picked, by the way.
GHOSTY191
Read above. Also the device is a couple of dollars a month. Way, way less than your smokes.
MURC:
The device does NOT track. It works like your anonymous cell phone. I assume you use an anonymous cell phone -- and cash only, right? You will NOT be tracked by Skymeter. You need a different product for that. Try Trakstick. There are several. Your spouse may have already put one in your truck.
OKERIBOK:
Fuel tax does not work. It is blind to congestion. In fact Fuel Tax is implicated (structurally) in keeping congestion locked in. What will happen is fuel taxes will come down and pay-as-you-go will go up. You will drive less at rushhour, and you will refuse to pay both taxes, as you should. Read about Minister Raymond Lim on grushhour. Somehow, he gets it.
GUYS:
This is the same as paying for what you use. Water, electricity, food. The more you draw the more you pay. Nothing new here, EXCEPT: YOU thought the gas tax paid for roads (only sort of); YOU thought the gas tax was enough (it is not); YOU thought gas tax was fair (it is not); YOU think a gas tax increase will reduce commuter congestion (it will not, but it WILL rob you of your recreational travel); YOU think GPS tracks you (it does not, you need the right transponder and system for that and skymeter does not have that, Skymeter is a road-use-meter, NOT a tracker. If you want to protest, try asking your congressperson to stop earmarking gas tax revenue for non-transport purposes. Else, get a larger vehicle so you can climb out of the pot-holes. Even smarter ask to switch out gas taxes in favor of pay-as-you-go fees. Then get a bike and laugh all the way to the bank.