All Cars Would Carry GPS to Track Miles Under Blumenauer Bill
August 9th, 2009Via: Daily Emerald:
On July 23, Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer introduced legislation that would fund a pilot program demonstrating the potential viability of replacing a national gas tax with a national mileage fee to generate more money for the construction of highways.
Opponents say the mileage fee would increase taxes, but Blumenauer said the increase is critical to ensure that federal funds set aside for highways do not go into deficit.
The Vehicle Miles Traveled program would track each car’s mileage though a GPS installed in each vehicle and collect the number of miles traveled through an electronic reader every time a vehicle filled up the tank a gas station.
This type of pilot program has already been tested in Oregon, along with a few other states. In November 2007, 260 Portland residents volunteered to have a mileage-tracking device installed in their cars as a VMT program trial run. Because the program was only meant to run statewide, the GPS excluded any miles traveled outside of Oregon.
All GPS installed on cars would also carry a bullet.