Hollands' Brave New World of driving

The Dutch want to abolish car tax and instead introduce a charge per kilometre. People would then only have to pay for the number of kilometres they drive. The left-liberal daily De Volkskrant sees a Brave New World ahead for car-drivers. "The kilometre charge will reduce traffic jams by 50 percent and emissions of CO2 and fine particles by 10 percent. In addition driving will become cheaper for 59 percent of drivers. The price of a car will fall by 25 percent, because the BPM [purchase tax] will be abolished as well. And miraculously the state will still receive as much revenue as it does now. ... One cause for concern, however, will be the Big Brother metres that will be installed in every car to register every journey made. ... And of course people will think of all kinds of ways of manipulating them to save money. And what about data protection? Our lives will no longer be private, the metres will reveal everything. ... The kilometre charge is almost too good to be true."

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