Skip to main content Part of complete coverage on   By Thom
Patterson, CNN updated 8:10 AM EST, Wed December 7, 2011 Would
paying a 2-cent tax for every mile you drive take the fun out of
the great American road trip?   • Experts: Per-mile road tax
will replace or supplement fuel tax   • Columnist: Don't curtail
Americans' love for the open road   • Per-mile GPS tracking
devices spur privacy fears  (CNN) -- Remember your first road
trip? That sweet taste of independence as you were finally
unleashed on America's free and open highways?  For Pulitzer-
winning automotive columnist Dan Neil, it was the day he turned
16 and passed his driving test.  "The minute I got my drivers
license out of the laminator, I was on the road," he recalled.
"I took the longest road trip I could take."  Neil pointed his
Fiat 124 Spider convertible in the direction of the nearest
city: Raleigh, North Carolina.  "I just had to go man, I just
had to drive. I must have put 500 miles on that car that day."
Neil said he was part of a min