Taxing Drivers By The Mile 1761

Just raise the gas tax if they're really in bad straights with respect to revenues, which I doubt. I don't agree with raising the tax or creating a new one to "penalize" either certain people or certain vehicles.

Bump the gas tax up by 50 cents a gallon and use the proceeds to build more roads - not widen old one, but build new ones

-OR-

use the proceeds to build some new rail technology that is available to carry cars and

1) Runs on electricity, preferably nuclear. 2) Runs a whole lot faster than roads can be driven. 3) Runs at zero emissions.

We need more space to get places in terms of concrete and guideways and rails and so forth. Even consider elevated roadways, built directly over existing roadways. No, I don't know how to do this without shutting down the existing road, but if someone else does, then great - do it.

As for GPS, that's a nutty solution. The GPS receivers themselves do not work 100%, as they get blocked by tall mountains and tall buildings and wet forest canopy and... deliberately placed foriegn objects over the antenna, such as tin foil. You can bet that half the units wouldn't be servicable at any given time. The state of California wouldn't be getting any $$$ from all the tourists they attract that drive in, and the then there's the initial cost to purchase and install the GPS receivers. There's WAAAAAY too many problems with this approach to make it practical, let alone the privacy invasion that is sure to follow when legislators get the bright idea that they can download people's travels and figure out where they've been as well as ding them $100 for every time they exceed the speed limit.

The whole thing stinks. Just raise the gas tax, if absolutely necessary.

Dave Head