When Public Policy Works Too Well

It seems genius law makers on the West Coast want to charge drivers by the mile. Gas taxes that are meant to pay for road improvements are down as more drivers do the right thing and buy fuel efficient cars.

Under the proposal, cars would be equiped with GPS systems that would record the miles driven and charge drivers at the pump. So hybrid driving hippies will be paying a lot more to drive their new vehicles. But wasn't the gas tax justified when it was implimented as reducing the nation's demand on foreign oil, or that by encouraging people to drive fuel efficient cars, there would be less pollution?

How about this: as revenue from gas tax goes down, simply raise the rate per gallon and use the money to fund public transportation projects. If people start paying $7 a gallon in fuel taxes, a lot more people will start driving fuel efficient cars, reducing the need for foreign oil and increasing their use of mass transit. Taking the revenue and building complex rail, subway, and monorail lines [no really, monorails are cool] across the suburban wasteland, people will drive less, reducing the cost of maintaining roads.

Or of course, we could do what you said, and track where people go and tax them per mile, and keep building more roads. I'm sure that will work.