That freedom to travel isn't some inalienable right from God, it is the fruits of trillions of dollars spent on road construction. Combined state and federal funding for highways alone are somewhere around 140 billion dollars a year. That money has to come from somewhere.
The potential big brother aspects of pay by usage are frightening, but looking strictly at the economic side it makes alot of sense.
With all due respect it certainly is, at least in America. Otherwise we'd be like say.. Germany, where you have to 'report' to the local Police Department when you move to a new city. As to the roads and how we get "there" - we're paying for the roads in more ways than just the gas tax.
Anyway this 'pay by the mile' bull baloney is nothing more than some socialistic Urban Planner's wet-dream and is nothing more than an electronic version of "your papers please".
After all they really don't want us to travel anyway. "They" want us all to live in one big city using "public transportation" and see personal travel (commuting) and "suburban sprawl" as one big evil that must be contained - "for the common good".
Combined state and federal funding for highways alone are somewhere around 140 billion dollars a year.
And you already pay for that with car assesments, gas assesments, assesments on new housing construction, income taxes (for the DOD part of the interstate system), etc...
The only reason it doesn't balance is because it gets contaminated in the general fund and sidetracked into all sorts of doo-gooder BS...
Your interpretation of freedom is pretty radical, and not in keeping with American tradition, IMO. I couldn't disagree more strongly...travel restriction and monitoring is characteristic of the worst kinds of totalitarian governments.
I think you are trying to say that the use of highways is not free, which is true. But there is no legitimate relationship between paying for highways and being tracked like animals by government bureaucrats.