‘LUDICROUS’: SAN FRAN AREA DRIVERS COULD BE FORCED TO INSTALL GPS DEVICES THAT TAX THEIR TRAVEL
Morning traffic on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. (Photo: Getty Images/Justin Sullivan)
On Thursday evening, a controversial study in the San Francisco Bay Area will be voted upon that could require drivers to allow GPS devices to be installed inside their car. The ultimate goal? Not to see where they’re going, but to evaluate how much they’re driving — and consider taxing them for it.
The San Jose Mercury News (via The Reporter) poses this scenario:
Imagine being taxed a dollar for driving to the store. Commute to work? That’ll be a few bucks more.Is it crazy or the way of the future?
It goes on writing that it could even cost drivers in the area $1,300 per year in taxes if implemented. Low-income people would be exempt from the proposed tax on travelling the Bay Area’s nine-county highways and neighborhood roads. It would also be expected to reduce congestion.
But first, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments will decide whether or not to even allow a study of how the program would work to take place. CBS Local reports Randy Rentschler with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission saying the study would be a 20-year look at how the area is traveled and how much.
“We’re not interested in where they go. We’re only interested in the amount they travel,” Rentschler is reported as saying. “But for some folks, that’s a distinction without a difference. Anytime you talk about getting information from people, whenever that conversation comes up, it’s another hurdle you have to overcome.”
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