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My apologies in advance: this post will probably only interest readers who live in Cascadia’s most populous county; or who are fascinated by the details of transportation funding. The Nov. 2 ballot in King County, Washington, where I live, includes a rather peculiar item that many people have asked me about: an advisory measure on transportation. It’s advisory because it’s just a poll. It doesn’t change any laws, appropriate any...

The Aviva Canada insurance company is launching a 5,000-person test of Pay-as-You-Drive (PAYD) insurance in Ontario. Aviva is using a similar approach—plus technology licensed to it by-Progressive Insurance. Progressive is running a pilot of its own in Minnesota, as we noted in August. Aviva’s Press Release says: The program allows drivers to track their driving habits—how much, where and how fast they drive—through a device installed in the vehicle. The...

One of our supporters recently wrote us with an excellent question about Pay-As-You-Drive car insurance (PAYD), a new approach to insurance that rewards motorists for driving less (see previous posts): “How will PAYD affect people in small communities, especially those without public transportation?” PAYD was designed to give drivers more control over their insurance rates AND provide an incentive to drive less, thereby mitigating the negative impacts of driving: climate...

If you drive 10,000 miles a year, aren’t you less likely to have an accident than someone who drives 30,000 miles a year? And if so, shouldn’t you pay less for insurance? That’s the idea behind pay-as-you-drive car insurance (PAYD), an approach that would make buying car insurance more like buying gasoline: the less you drive, the less you pay. But despite studies indicating that mileage-based insurance makes sense from...

Eric Pryne had more on electronic mileage charges for vehicles, as a substitute for gas taxes, in yesterday’s Seattle Times. The fundamental forces behind this trend-advances in engine and information technology-will ultimately transform how Cascadians pay to drive, as we’ve been pointing out since 1996. The ultimate potential of this shift is a set of related breakthroughs: pay-as-you-drive insurance, congestion pricing, pay-as-you-drive vehicle registration and taxes, and pollution taxes. Together,...

Pay-as-you-drive auto insurance (PAYD) is among the most promising innovations for resolving the transportation problems that plague the Northwest. It also makes sense actuarially. But although consumer interest in PAYD is high, insurance companies-who are understandably a little risk-averse-have been slow to give it a try. On that front, here’s a promising step: GMAC and OnStar-a satellite navigation system installed in many GM cars-have teamed up to offer mileage-based insurance...

“If you want people to consume something less, the simplest thing to do is price it more dearly.” Thus goes the argument for higher gasoline taxes, articulated by none other than General Motors’ chairman and chief executive G. Richard Wagoner Jr.. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise: for years automakers have expressed quiet support for higher gas taxes, mostly as a replacement for the fuel economy regulations (known...