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Oregon wants to get rid of its gas tax and impose a new road tax, with GPS in every car tracking the number of miles you drive and taxing you on that amount.

Analysts say this new structure will nearly double the taxes now paid in gas for those with fuel-effecient vehicles, while SUVs with 15mpg will see a decrease in taxes paid.

Anything wrong with penalizing environment and economy friendly consumers? Apparently not in Oregon. Anyone from Oregon who can comment on this?

I also wonder if motorcycles will be exempt...I certainly don't want to be 'taxed' for the same amount of road usage as a giant SUV thats 500% heavier and takes up four times more road than I do.

Sounds fair to me. An Explorer or Hummer realistically "uses" as much road as a Honda Civic. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing the tax rate depend on the size/weight or fuel efficiency of the vehicle.. for instance, a Humvee would pay 2 cents per mile, whereas a Civic only pays 0.5 cents per mile.

Nevermind the taxes. A GPS in every car?!?!? There will be some huge legal battles before that is allowed to happen. It will never reach that point.

SUVs and Trucks already pay more taxes just due to buying more gas. This law, as crazy as it is, would only help those people.

Doesn't sound very well thought out to me.

Andrew78108 wrote:Nevermind the taxes. A GPS in every car?!?!? There will be some huge legal battles before that is allowed to happen. It will never reach that point.

SUVs and Trucks already pay more taxes just due to buying more gas. This law, as crazy as it is, would only help those people.

Doesn't sound very well thought out to me.

Like I said, it would be much more fair to rate the vehicles based on size/weight or similar.

GPS units are already found in millions of cars. It would be trivial to install a little logger on every car that logs the number of miles. If the data collected is limited to actual number of miles traveled, there are no privacy concerns either.

It certainly sounds to me like it could work just fine.

It would depend on how the GPS is used. If the sole purpose is to track miles, why not use the odometer already onboard?

Regardless, it'll be hard to implement. Good question on whether they would try to enforce it on bikes too.

Andrew78108 wrote:If the sole purpose is to track miles, why not use the odometer already onboard?

Because people who own cars in Oregon don't use them exclusively in Oregon.

Good point.

I feel that heavier vehicles should be taxed more while lighter ones less or none. It's always those heavy vehicles that have a greater wear on roads.

Motorcycles should be exempt since many of them make a negligable difference in the surface. Then again many state legislators don't like motorcycles.

Anybody think about the fact that they could also use the gps to monitor your speed? Or where you have been if your wife wonders why it took you 14 hours to get a loaf of bread and you came home with a g-string attached to your mirror?

JCS wrote:Anybody think about the fact that they could also use the gps to monitor your speed? Or where you have been if your wife wonders why it took you 14 hours to get a loaf of bread and you came home with a g-string attached to your mirror?

If that happened I dont think your wife would be doing much wondering