Washington state plan to replace gas tax with a tax per mile.

[jazz4cash]

That's a huge obstacle to overcome I'd think. But it's also the only way I can think of to be even close to fairness for people who travel out of state often, like us. Both the MD and VA state lines are within 20 minutes of where we live in WV and a good bit (I'm guessing 35% +/- 10%) of our driving is in one of those other states. Almost all of our local driving is probably 10 miles or less round trip and all of our driving over that is to another state.

If we took the trouble to measure, it wouldn't surprise me to discover that even half or more of our vehicle mileage is in states other than WV.

It’s not just where you travel, it’s also where you buy your fuel. I am within 50 miles of 5 states. If I buy fuel in a state that taxes fuel and use it in a state that taxes miles I’m being double taxed. Maybe it really is in addition to the current tax. That means dirty fossil fuel users get double taxed.

 

[Chuckanut]

Here is one concern regarding the states tracking our road usage so as to replace a gasoline tax with a road usage tax.

As you can see from the article below millions of Oregon drivers have had their information stolen by bad guys. Imagine if they also got data on when and where you frequently drove your car. This would be useful to thieves who would like to know at what time of days nobody may be home. Or, An ex spouse could use the information to stalk their former mate. Snoops could easily figure out what church you attend, where your kids go to school, if you prefer to shop at Trader Joes or Walmart, etc.

Should states be trusted to keep data on when and where we drive safe?

https://www.oregonlive.com/commutin...e-and-id-card-info-at-risk-officials-say.html

The Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services confirmed Thursday that an estimated 3.5 million driver’s license and identification card files were compromised when the agency was hacked two weeks ago.

Agency spokesperson Michelle Godfrey said Thursday that the agency realized on Monday — four days ago — that the breach had extended to about 90% of the state’s driver’s license and ID card files.

Louisiana also had a similar breech.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/16/louisiana-drivers-license-hack-cyber-attack

A statement on Thursday from the governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, said that his staff believes everyone with a driver’s license, identification card or car registration issued by the state of more than 4.6 million residents probably had their names, addresses and social security numbers exposed to the hackers.


Other personal information to which the cyber-attackers apparently had access were Louisianans’ driver’s license numbers, vehicle registration data, handicap placard information, birthdates, heights and eye colors, Edwards’s statement said.

 

[Koolau]

Should states be trusted to keep data on when and where we drive safe?

One thing I have come to believe (trying to think how to put it into a tag line): Nothing on the net is unhackable. No data you upload, no pictures you'd rather keep private, no communications you send - no matter how personal or private, gummints have proven themselves at least as bad at protecting private data as have big business.

You must assume that any data that you let out of your control is obtainable by virtually anyone that wants to try hard enough to get it. Does anyone really doubt this any more?