Gas Pains, II
The post below mentions the Oregon experiment with GPS-based mileage taxes to replace (ed: when does the government stop a tax?) gas tax revenues which are expected to decline dramatically over the next decade or so.
Maybe they should drag their little GPS unit away from the classroom for a while. I got a nice Garmin unit for Christmas and have had some fun with it. One day I hooked it up to my laptop via the serial port (how long before they figure out USB?) and drove around Bellevue, WA.
The map software from National Geographic showed the routes I took just fine -- as long as the unit could keep in touch with the satellite. See, here in the topographically challenging Northwest we are surrounded by things that get between a GPS and its signals. Hundred-foot-tall trees, hills, mountains, plus the normal buildings that any city has made for weak signal coverage in many areas and none at all in others.
The folks in Oregon will probably solve this problem like what the map software does: draw a straight line between the last two known positions and call it a night. It will drive some beaurocrat crazy to think that some miles are going untaxed. Well, now...
Don't forget the growth industry just waiting to explode around GPS-fake-out units. Of course they will be illegal from the start but so were cable boxes for many years yet it didn't slow down sales much.
And what will the State do if the military decides to suspend the civilian GPS band for a period of time? Probably sue the Feds for loss of revenue.