New US Transportation Chief Eyes Taxing Your Mileage

[Alyeska]

A Two Dollar gas tax would fuck over a lot of people in Western states already. The high gas prices this summer seriously hurt a lot of marginal businesses here in Montana. Already hurting from the economy the gas prices sent several out of business. While its a noble goal to try and encourage people to use public transporation, some regions its just impossible. And to impose a gas tax is going to hurt the people who have no viable alternative.

[Sea Skimmer]

Rising the gas tax could also help pay for additional public transport and reduce wear and tear on the roads by discouraging unnecessary driving ; Just include exemptions for truckers and farmers.

No that wont work. Trucks, frost heaving, snow plowing and rain are what do all the damage to roads. Cars don’t bother them more then slightly because they have quite low ground pressure and soft tires. Bus’s also do quite a bit of damage since they tend to be just about at the limit of the weight allowed on two axles by law.

Public transportation is plain infeasible for huge areas of the US. Trust me, we tried, really really hard back before cars. It used to be we had so many trolley lines you could go from Philadelphia to Chicago, or Boston to Norfolk completely by trolley through directly interconnecting lines, and even with such networks as that sprawling besides our regular railroads it still wasn’t nearly enough. This is why cars exploded into use even long before the US had any paved roads, let alone highways.

[Kanastrous]

Perhaps there might be benefit in designing a tax-and-registration system that takes into account the available transpo infrastructure where the registrant lives. For example, someone who lives in Nowhere, Nebraska could see a tax rebate or exemption to cover their reliance on personal vehicles for movement, versus a Manhattanite who is not as reliant upon a personal vehicle to get around and conduct her business.

[General Zod]

Perhaps there might be benefit in designing a tax-and-registration system that takes into account the available transpo infrastructure where the registrant lives. For example, someone who lives in Nowhere, Nebraska could see a tax rebate or exemption to cover their reliance on personal vehicles for movement, versus a Manhattanite who is not as reliant upon a personal vehicle to get around and conduct her business.

That would be a logistical nightmare for people who do a lot of traveling between cities.

[Illuminatus Primus]

A Two Dollar gas tax would fuck over a lot of people in Western states already. The high gas prices this summer seriously hurt a lot of marginal businesses here in Montana. Already hurting from the economy the gas prices sent several out of business. While its a noble goal to try and encourage people to use public transporation, some regions its just impossible. And to impose a gas tax is going to hurt the people who have no viable alternative.

A lot of businesses and residential development is going to disappear sooner or later anyway, we might as well encourage it on our own terms, and provide public assistance and transition subsidies to our new patterns of development. Or what is the alternative? Hope against reality and then take it in the ass when volatility causes much higher, uncontrollable spikes? Furthermore revenues from taxation in the present can be used to create a buffer in the form of fuel reserves, new energy development, and new technologies.