WA State likely to approve pilot program to charge drivers per mile

originally posted by: American-philosopher
a reply to: StoutBroux

Oh no don't get me started on the toll Bridges!!!! they said wait they said that eventually the 520 toll bridge would go away and it would just pay for itself right. Tolls are like Trolls they just stay there and metastasize.

the original 520 bridge toll booths did go away once the bridge was paid for. go check the facts

a reply to: bigx001

Yeah, the toll booths went away. You still get charged every time you drive over the bridge though. You either get one of the Good 2 Go passes or they send you a bill.

originally posted by: SpaDe_
Sounds like a back door to more spying on Americans than anything. The only way to keep track of the mileage would be through a gps tracker and I am sure they wouldn't stop with a simple mileage data collector. They also would no doubt have the capability to upload or store all of your travel routes with your most visited locations as well as other driver data hidden within this little gps device.

Bingo, Spade. Every dest you keep on the Garmin can get
bulk downloaded to Utah in a second. So much for escaping...

My favorite would be some kind of nonmetallic go-kart with a
tarp and s few solid fuel tablets.. solid spongie tires that never
go flat; and a copy of that letter explaining my new political
status to Secretary Kerry. Right after Frater comes back to
flatulize me that pack of 50s... sigh.

Now that I'm evicted and broke besides from retiring early,
I welcome the enforcement strategy they'll use to tax my
holy NBs. But for now you can't get revenue from an eggplant.

originally posted by: Domo1
a reply to: bigx001

Yeah, the toll booths went away. You still get charged every time you drive over the bridge though. You either get one of the Good 2 Go passes or they send you a bill.

get the facts straight, the current tolls are to pay for the new bridge. up until a few years ago there was no toll since there was no replacement.

all this will do is put the burden on the poor since they are the ones who live in the lower cost outlying areas and they are the least likely capable of buying fuel efficient cars

originally posted by: MALBOSIA
a reply to: Domo1

So they want to go back to the dark ages where only the upper class can afford the toll of travel. How far we have come back to square one...

After this one I'll have to bail, Mal... but a great vision.
Why should we serfs feel the need to travel when you've
got Direct Deposit? Although it may be nice to see a couple
of old friends aging quicker from unadjusted bad habits.
I'll admit it, I don't do holidays well.
PS I thought we were already taxed back into the Dark
Ages when they came up with the inheritance tax hike.
NECROS.. can't live with 'em, can't die without 'em ROFL..

Likely? Gotta shut it down before those with the funds pay to have a bill for it passed. People need to stand up for that. Anyone living on the Eastern side knows that the Western sides reaps all of the money for gas tax, vehicle infraction tickets, etc. The same will be done here, once again leaving the Eastern side without benefit, just taking from their pockets. Though, I see even a more concern for the invasion of privacy with GPS tracking when they surely would just add more to the high gas tax without question of people anyway!

a reply to: Domo1

As i see it this tatic of goverment will become universal as goverments search to raise taxes from the masses becuase the rich are just too big and too strong to get tax out off.

The goverments of the world have to get corporate welfare money from some where and wage and salary earners and householders are the weakest link of all and so make good candidates to be tax doners to the busienss community, particuarly big business.

a reply to: guitarplayer

in jersey they built the garden state parkway...it was supposed to be toll-free after it was paid off, and that never happened, lol

once you let them start bleeding you, they never stop.

a reply to: Grumble

This... And it should already be covered by the yearly cost of renewing registration on a vehicle. Gas tax already covers the other half. People also give up some versatility and comfort by driving a lightweight fuel efficient vehicle, so why punish them for making that decision?

If I was in Washington, I'd be saying NO to the GPS idea.

Anyhow with the shipping ports and some of the heavy industry in Washingon, it's likely not car traffic but out of state trucking causing most of the wear and tear on the highways. There are probably some externalized costs of business being shoved onto the motorists that live there.

originally posted by: liejunkie01
a reply to: Domo1

I know I won't be driving as much.

If I were to get charged a nickel per mile,

120 miles a day
x.05
=$6
x5 days a week
=$30
x4 weeks
=$120

That would be $120 a month just to get to work and back. Not including family drive time.

I will personally start a protest and picket the officials.

Now add in the price of fuel.

120miles x5days=600miles ea week
x50 weeks(allowing for vacation)=30,000 miles/yr.
30,000/25mpg=1200galx$3.00=3600 min gas purchase/yr

120 weekly gas tax x50 weeks is $6,000 annual gas tax. Add that to the price of gas, hmmm

Total min per year to drive to work is almost $10,000. That's almost a years wages for some people, 6 mos for others. I hope you make a lot of money.

This doesn't even include other driving miles. Even if you can write (some) of it off........a screwy sitcheeashun at best.

Ideas like this are death spirals, more tax on driving = less people
driving = less tax money = more need for taxes. When fuel went
up so high we saw the same thing, people in my income bracket,
the most numerous in the US, cut WAY back on driving, the result
is what you see now..... When it becomes so expensive to drive
the only option is to drive as little as possible.

If it cost me 10k a year to go to work i would be forced to quit
my job plain and simple, there is no way i could cover that and
the cost of living. Now luckily in my state (ky) gas is much cheaper,
but they have been discussing this idea as well.

a reply to: bigx001

dont they have the pay go system now though?

I hate to say this, but maybe do like I've heard that the Dakotas are doing: instead of raising taxes, they simply cut costs by taking some very rural roads back to gravel.

It's too bad we can't get leaders in office (*cough* Ron Paul *cough*) who might cut unnecessary spending and debt rather than raising existing taxes and creating new taxes and who might reduce Big Brother-like control systems (GPS tracking, Agenda 21, etc.)

But since that doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon, I have some predictions:

• A booming market for older cars and GPS/mileage transceiver wire snipping services
  
  
• New laws requiring older cars to be retrofitted with GPS/mileage transceivers and outlawing GPS/mileage transceiver wire snipping
  
  
• A booming black market for GPS/mileage transceiver wire snipping services
  
  
• Random police or homeland security checks for functional GPS/mileage transceivers on vehicles
  
  
• An entrepreneurial opportunity for new devices that pass local GPS/mileage transceiver checks but transmit bogus lower mileage data
  
  
• New laws outlawing devices that transmit bogus mileage data
  
  
• An entrepreneurial opportunity for new devices for authorities to detect devices that transmit bogus mileage data
  
  
• People modify their habits to drive less, so mileage and other taxes are increased
  
  
• Grumbling about Big Brother and taxes, some talk of revolution
  
  
• People pay the taxes, life goes on, but everyone is a bit less happy about their lot in life
  
  
• Go back 3 steps, repeat...
  

originally posted by: bigx001

originally posted by: Domo1
a reply to: bigx001

Yeah, the toll booths went away. You still get charged every time you drive over the bridge though. You either get one of the Good 2 Go passes or they send you a bill.

get the facts straight, the current tolls are to pay for the new bridge. up until a few years ago there was no toll since there was no replacement.

Washington State law requires that tolls be collected to pay for the bridge, and stop when the bridge is paid for, but it's very weird in application. The old Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the green metal one used for East to West traffic, has no tolls, but the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, used only for West to East traffic, does. Tolls have been put back on the Seattle floating bridge, the north one starting in Montlake, because they're about to "upgrade" it, yet no tolls have ever been on the Edward Murrow (Mercer Island) floating bridge. To further complicate the issue, State Route 167, from Renton to Auburn, now has a toll lane with variable costs, that is paid by the same Good-to-Go pass that gets you across the bridges at a cheaper rate, but there are no bridges involved. It's there to sock the commuter if he wants to move faster through rush hour.

Point is that the legislators and State DOT have been very loose in their definition of what they can and cannot charge tolls for. We can expect more in the future and we can expect the law to further erode.

originally posted by: CraftBuilder
Full scale GPS logging is coming with or without this. Driverless vehicles are the new safety and convenience rage. GPS and other location logging systems are the backbone of driverless technology. Its not the technology that is the problem. We have to confront the abuse.

Most newer cars already have GPS from the factory, OnStar and Nav systems.

a reply to: schuyler

But yet a couple years ago I was watching this local news show called Upfront where they reported people going around or taking the long way. when faced with the choice of either paying a toll and moving quickly or taking the long way and being stuck in traffic.

Do you think they will start tolling those express lanes through downtown Seattle and going up north? with that stupid good to go pass.

a reply to: Domo1

This entire thing is a farce since politicians in Washington state are doing, and have been doing power grabs to further entrench themselves with very high paying jobs, along with very high taxes for all kinds of excuses prior to now. These legislators do not respect voter initiatives because many in the past took away, or rescinded unapproved taxes and fees, which these legislators, (including the former and very corrupt governors' Gary Locke, and the hag Christine Gregoire), also turned down MILLIONS in taxes from Boeing by refusing to work with Boeing in good faith to reduce red tape in the current state taxation schemes for business, which then forced Boeing to move their entire headquarters to Chicago which lost over 20,000 jobs for the state and untold millions of dollars in revenue.

Locke also rescinded illegally an approved voter initiative which reduced driving licensing fees and sales taxes before he left office to become Obama's Secretary of commerce at the time. Locke was the architect of losing 20,000 jobs when Boeing moved their administrative headquarters out of state.

Now before anyone says gas taxes go into different pots, let me just say that Washington state has never obeyed those little things and all the money first goes into the state general fund, and then they decide where to shuffle funds from there, to pay for road and highway improvements. They do this this way so they can first give themselves room to decide to give themselves fat pay raises and other little things like that, and worry about where to spend the money legitimately later.

Soon these government a$$holes will figure out a way to tax the very air we breathe, forked tongued reptilian parasites, sucking the life out of the common man.