

Netherlands To Tax Drivers By the Kilometer - kgermino
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/11/dutch-road-tax/

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jmostert2
The Dutch government is batting 10 for 10 when it comes to pushing through
legislation that mocks the idea of privacy openly. Another stellar idea they
had: gather fingerprints for every single person in the country and store them
in a central database. I know it sounds like a bad joke, but it's not
([http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2009/09/fingerprints_i...](http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2009/09/fingerprints_included_in_dutch.php)).
The law was passed without any problem, and only now privacy groups are
fighting back.

It's scary when your government is so obviously looking out for itself, rather
than you, and failing to even see the difference. After all, what's good for
the government is good for the people, eh?

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Keyframe
Honest question, can you or someone explain to me why is fingerprinting
everyone bad? And if so, how does it weigh against benefits that gives to
effectives of police? Where I live we all have unique citizen no.'s and
fingerprinting is mandatory when issuing an ID card (also mandatory) for I
believe 60 years already, and no problem whatsoever.

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eru
Where?

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Keyframe
Croatia, and before that ex Yugoslavia.

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raghus
Doesn't the gasoline tax we pay in the US accomplish the exact same thing
without all the fancy GPS and central data gathering business?

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m0th87
No. If reducing emissions is the goal, gas taxes are actually superior because
the price is proportional the emissions you make. This tax doesn't provide a
disincentive against gas guzzlers, but they already have insanely high gas
taxes in Europe. To me, this seems like a supremely over-engineered means of
taxation.

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jorgeortiz85
But if reducing congestion is also a goal, as the second sentence of the
article states, a per-kilometer tax is superior. A GPS-based system can also
target those who drive at peak hours and on congested roads. Given that the
Netherlands is small and population-dense, they might be very interested in
reducing congestion.

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nickpinkston
Apart from hating the big brother aspects of this, it won't reduce greenhouse
gas as effectively. Fuel taxation would do the same thing and be more
efficient at reducing CO2.

The GPS is clever for reducing congestion, but I doubt they're able to
evaluate if you're not contributing by, say, taking back roads to work. EZPass
or license cams would be better for congestion charges.

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jacquesm
It's a stupid approach and it will never see the light of day.

NL has a long history of spending lots of money on large infrastructural
projects that get abandoned. But I'm sure some big contractors will clean up
on it.

Until not that long ago we had a complete lock complex sitting at the head of
a non-existent channel...

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jules
Lets hope so. Now that the government is tracking everyone on public transport
with the "OV Chipkaart", and is going to track everyone in cars, there is no
easy way for normal citizens to move across the country anonymously. Of course
big criminals will have no problem avoiding being tracked.

Phone, internet, passport, transport, health care, cameras everywhere. When do
I get a free webcam for my home? Why is the government so afraid of us?

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brtzsnr
I live in Amsterdam. The public transportation has a similar system: pay for
each kilometer you travel. The system is pretty complicated and user
unfriendly (I lost twice 4.75€ due to some confusion). I believe they want
some fairness, but if you ask me, the old system (pay per travel) was better.

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dustingetz
"Each vehicle will be equipped with a GPS device that tracks how many
kilometres are driven and when and where. This data will be then be sent to a
collection agency that will send out the bill"

I'm far more concerned about the implementation than the concept.

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abalashov
This does not seem to reward fuel-efficient vehicles that get more mileage per
unit of fuel.

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jgamman
love the photo of a 'traffic jam' - they should visit Auckland sometime -
they'd probably call that a parking lot ;-)

