Login
or
Register
Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
Fixing The Economy with Intermodal
Edit post
Edit your reply below.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
<P mce_keep="true">[quote user="schlimm"] <P>I've been speculating as to the desires posted in this thread to make some/all highways toll roads? Why? If the desire is to make it user fee-based, why change the system in place that already takes in to account miles driven, weight, etc. - the stated goals - at the expense of installing new devices to do the same thing that fuel taxes already do? Fuel taxes also provide an incentive for greater fuel efficiency, which would seem to be a worthwhile goal.<BR></P> <P>[/quote]</P><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman"> <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>Your take on this is exactly the way people who buy highly fuel-efficient cars look at it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are already carrots and sticks to get people to conserve fuel, and more are on the way.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>However, the gas tax has not been put in place to play that role.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is to pay for roads.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Basing it on a percentage of fuel used is just a convenient and practical way to levy and collect it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Technically, it is a tax related to road use, so the actual miles driven on the roads would be the truest reflection of that use.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>However, with no practical way of measuring that, the usage of fuel is the next best indicator of miles driven on the roads.</FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>However, when someone buys a car that gets a relatively higher number of miles per gallon, they are, in effect, evading part of their responsibility to pay for the roads.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now, it is true that a smaller fuel-efficient car is going to probably be lighter weight than average, and therefore produce relatively less wear and tear on the roads.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the difference between road wear produced by light weight cars and heavier cars is not that great, and it is already compensated for in the variation of license fees.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When you get into the weight levels of truck compared to cars, the road wear and tear factor becomes much more significant.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But still, road maintenance is only one part of the cost.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One could argue that every car driver should pay the same to cover the cost of the basic creation of the road they use.</FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>Based upon this overall rationale for the gas tax, if you solved the problem of tax avoidance by highly fuel efficient vehicles by simply <B><U>raising the fuel tax</U></B>, then it would be unfair to drivers of cars with average fuel economy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is why the tax-per-mile concept is seen as the optimum method of levy and collection of road use tax.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the real impetus behind it is the arrival of the GPS / computer technology needed to execute it. </FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>Please understand, I am not advocating this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On the contrary, I fear it like the plague because I see it going far beyond just being a tax-collecting device.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This technology built into everyone’s car is a control freak’s dream.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It will price-ration where you drive, when you drive, and how fast you drive.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Once it knows where you drive, it is only a short hop to factoring in <U>your need to drive</U>.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Certainly, in this brave new era of scarce resources, recreational driving will become a thing of the past.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>I don’t see this becoming a fully automated, hands-free driving system that takes over the entire operation of a vehicle.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That would be a quantum leap beyond the system I see coming in the near term.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>GPS is not accurate enough to guide a vehicle on the roads we have.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What I do see, however, is an automated system that will completely manage your driving privilege and fees, along with limiting your speed to the limit, limiting your rate of acceleration, and monitoring compliance with traffic signals.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There will be no need for speed bumps.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The automatic system will simply slow your vehicle down to the speed you would drive if there were a speed bump there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></SPAN></P> <P mce_keep="true"> </P>
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
Update Reply
Join our Community!
Our community is
FREE
to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Login »
Register »
Search the Community
Newsletter Sign-Up
By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our
privacy policy
More great sites from Kalmbach Media
Terms Of Use
|
Privacy Policy
|
Copyright Policy