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> have an annual registration tax based on distance travelled Now the hard part is getting accurate distance traveled figures from all road users. Good luck wi
by Tuna-Fish 9y ago
> have an annual registration tax based on distance travelled
Now the hard part is getting accurate distance traveled figures from all road users. Good luck with that.
> As to the sister comment on how do we pay for the extra electricity infrastructure... through your electricity bill?
Yes, and the system is breaking down because of solar. Typically, most of what you pay for electricity goes towards maintaining the line to your house, not towards generation. When you get solar panels that cover most of your usage, but keep the connection for use when the sun does not shine, your bill goes down to the point where it's no longer enough to maintain your grid connection.
The correct solution to that is to disaggregate transmission and generation, and for transmission bill you for the size of your main incoming fuse instead of consumption. However, in much of the US the utilities are heavily constrained in how they bill you by law, and cannot do this, so the only thing they can do is hike up prices on everyone, so solar is even more appealing and more people get it, resulting in even higher prices...
- edent 9y agoIn the UK (and many other countries) each vehicle has a mandatory yearly inspection. The MOT test in the UK checks emissions, roadworthiness, basic functionality. No reason why it couldn't also report mileage. Most modern cars provide an API so you can track mileage. Again, not hard to provide that as a taxable figure.
- Reason077 9y ago"The MOT test in the UK checks emissions" Unfortunately the UK does not have proper emissions checks as part of the MOT. There is a (subjective) visual check for visible smoke, and a metered exhaust check which again only tests generically for "smoke", ie large particulates. Unfortunately there is no testing of specific pollutants (NOx, PM2.5, PM10, etc) so many vehicles can pass MOT even if they are way outside allowed emissions levels, have had DPF removed, etc.
- adrianN 9y agoWe get accurate numbers for income tax, why not for road tax?
- sargun 9y agoBecause installing a tracker on someone’s car will end with lots of privacy issues? You need a tracker to properly attribute taxes to the person that owns the road, and even though you don’t need super accurate trackers, any tracking can be abused.
- yorwba 9y agoYou don't need trackers if you just want to replicate the mechanism of the fuel tax for cars that don't use fuel. For that you only need a tamper-protected mileage counter.
- Reason077 9y agoYou don't need an electronic tracker to implement distance-based road charges. New Zealand has been doing this for decades: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/licensing-rego/road-user-charges/ https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/licensing-rego/road-user-c...
- zaarn 9y agoYou mean, the mileage counter on my car is a privacy issue? Just read of the mileage counter, end of story.