Oregon wants every mile to count

Oregon and the lure of 'information government', ie using technology to alter how government funds itself.

Oregon wants every mile to count With its gas tax stagnant, the state is experimenting with a `virtual tollway' that includes a fee per mile

Lee Younglove is motoring about town in a way that could be the future of driving in America: A state-installed GPS unit in his Subaru Outback is counting every mile he's logging, and a special transmitter in the car will tell the pump at one of two Portland gas stations how many miles he has traveled.

Soon, as part of a state experiment, he'll be paying 1.2 cents for every mile but won't be charged the state's 24-cents-a-gallon gas tax.
Later this year, the state will stop collecting the gas tax at the pump for some of these volunteers and start charging the mileage fee. Another group will pay 10 cents a mile during rush hour and fourth-tenths of a cent for each mile at other times. The fees are for in-state travel only. A third set of volunteers will be a control group, still paying the gas tax.

Results of the yearlong experiment, along with recommendations, will be presented to the Legislature three years from now so lawmakers can decide whether to impose the nation's first statewide user-fee system, aided by satellites.

The trial already has raised questions about whether Big Brother has found a new way to track motorists. But the state insists the GPS units are rigged only to count miles.

“Some people chose not to participate because they didn't want the government in any way to be tracking,” Younglove, 62, a retired information technology specialist, said about volunteers' initial meeting with state officials.

Here's the thing. I hardly drive at all, and haven't ever, really, since I was a teen. I've always biked, taken public transit, and walked to a large percentage of my destinations. D and I share a car, between the two of us, we've only put 4,000 miles on it, over 18 months (and I estimate she has used 2/3rds of the total). So, if this GPS thing became a national trend, and it did only what the Oregon officials claim it will do, I wouldn't mind because then my transportation costs would be lower. Plus, infrastructure shortfalls are affecting every state in the US. Why not make heavy users pay more?

The problem of course, is that once the device starts tracking automobiles, every government agency and insurance company is going to want to get their grubby little hands on the data.

But GPS technology is designed to identify whereabouts, and it's conceivable that insurance companies could force motorists to enable tracking features, unless a state bans it, said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Other state and federal agencies, as well as law enforcement, also could be interested in the tracking data, she said.

“Somebody could say, `I think my husband is cheating on me--can you tell me if he's in this neighborhood?'” Coney added. “Insurance companies will want to use it: If you want us to insure you, you'll have to give us your GPS information. . . . Information is currency.”

Whitty said when the Oregon Legislature officially considers replacing the tax with a mileage fee, the state transportation agency would propose measures addressing outsider access to GPS tracking information.
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State officials are anticipating that GPS units will be standard on all vehicles in 10 years or so. General Motors plans to install such navigational systems on 1 million 2007 models.

“It may not be the answer,” another volunteer, William Patterson, 38, said about the GPS-aided mileage system as he drove to the bank and grocery store, “but we won't know until they experiment with it and find out.”

Tags: automotive