Satellite-Assisted European Road Tolls Next? 288
Roland Piquepaille writes "In 'Pay-as-you-go motoring just around the corner,' the European Space Agency (ESA) says that "road tolls could be made fairer if satellite-assisted distance pricing is implemented." Experiments are currently underway in Ireland, Portugal and Germany, before a possible extension to other countries. Potential benefits of such a road tolling system would be fairer implementation of charging on a 'pay for use' basis. All these experiments are using the US-operated Global Positioning System (GPS). But in 2010, when the system is fully implemented, it will use the Galileo satellite system."
cell phones (Score:2, Informative)
cellphones are used to track traffic jams. if phones follow a certain path they're likely to be in a car and is the phone stays in a certain zone for longer than t and more phones have the same behaviour it's likely there is a traffic jam.
this system has shown to be quite accurate.
You gotta be kidding me!!! (Score:2, Informative)
I would like to say that I just can't believe this. Europe is a place where you must pay a tax on your gasoline that is more than the cost of the gasoline itself - that in itself is an insane infringement on our freedoms. The idea that European nations need to collect more taxes and fees is proposterous. However, liberal European politicians never felt that there was a problem with any tax or fee. I predict that within the next decade, the French and German governments will provide a licensing system that charges citizens for the air they breathe.
END RANT - Now, mod me down!!!
Road Toll? (Score:2, Informative)
The only charges we have are occasional ones such as when they built a new expensive bridge across a harbour, you had to pay $1 when you want across. Now that they've regained all the money, you don't have to pay anymore.
Re:How is this really different (Score:2, Informative)
Hence, the desire for fully automatic systems. Transponders are clearly a good model for commuters/frequent traffic, but don't work for occasional road users.
That said, I don't really see the value of GPS to a transponder. If the transponder only has a short range radio, then you don't need GPS. On the other hand, if the transponder has a longer range radio, then privacy goes out the window.
Re:Good Idea (Score:3, Informative)
It is what wrecks the road. It's transfered via combustion process into mechanical energy and transferred to the road by the vehicle, true, but gasoline is most certainly the primary source of the energy in question.
it better be more evenly matched to usage... (Score:5, Informative)
Some misunderstandings (Score:4, Informative)
The other error is about Galileo. ESA says much about technical advantages and improved accuracy, but the most important reason for Galileo is beeing independent from the US (GPS) or Russia (GLONASS), because both have the possibillity to switch off their systems or at least disrupt accuracy in times of conflict, which is unbearable for applications like "location based services" in mobile communication (like ordering a taxi to your exact location, calling for help or only let your phone show you the way to next pub
We all seem to be at it... (Score:3, Informative)
Motorists face travel tax and 'Big Brother' microchip law enforcement [stuff.co.nz]
Motorists face being taxed on how far they travel under government plans to generate cash. Transport Minister Paul Swain said with vehicles becoming more fuel efficient, revenue from petrol tax would drop and alternative charges needed to be considered. It is one of a number of transport schemes being looked at by officials, including a Big Brother-style project to equip every car with a personalised microchip so law-breaking motorists can be prosecuted by computer.
If fuel economy is the problem, then the simple and cheap solution is to raise the petrol tax a suitable proportion. It does not require extra costs to create the infrastructure to deal with the increased fuel efficiency issue.
That argument alone should be enough to show that this is not about efficiency and tax, but something else. I'm guessing that something else is that they really would like to invade citizens privacy. Of course if they can automate mindless policing functions, such as vehicle registrations, parking fines, speeding; then that frees up a police force to focus on real crime. Here in NZ police have quotas for speeding fines that they have to meet!
I think these proposals must be looked at in the broader context of what the technological change will mean for society. There are some benefits such as more efficient policing, but the potential privacy costs are huge, and I would suggest that not everyone will agree with that.
Re:Good Idea (Score:1, Informative)
If you want to carry a gun, you need to be prepared to use it. You need to be prepared to kill someone, and you will live with that the rest of your life.
The nobs who drive SUVs have forgotten the first axiom of surviving a crash: don't get in a crash.
So they drive 4-6000 lb bombs, with poor stopping distances and manouverability, with a higher center of gravity. So THEY might survive the crash, but they will kill everyone else involved in it.
That's just great.
Not experiments, live (Score:2, Informative)
2. Its for collecting truck Tolls on Freeways.
3. The (main) reason its there is the Problem that currently German taxpayers pay for the Freeways but a goodly precentage of the trucks carving the Asphalt are in transit from and to outside Germany.
4. The easy option of simply taxing Truck fuel doesn't work since the trucks easily have the range to fuel more or less where they please.