BIKE: CapMetro's Free Rides

[Fred Meredith]

Bob,

It sounds like you are proposing something that in its simplist form 
would be like the London solution. Every car entering the city pays a 
fee each day it does so. If the driver leaves the car at home and 
takes another form of transit, no fee. Therein lies at least some 
incentive and the "penalty" is paid by some of the polluters, even if 
not on a totally equitable basis. If it weren't so complicated, you 
could charge based on a running sample of the vehicle's exhaust gases 
so that even among those who insist on using their cars there would 
be incentive for cleaner cars.

Fred (just dreamin') Meredith

At 8:32 PM -0700 8/18/04, Bob Sessa wrote:
>You are being CC'd on the following email:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Dear Mr. Weir,
>
>
>
>I read your August 16 column with interest.  From your analysis, it 
>does appear that providing free rides on CapMetro is probably not 
>cost effective.  I am sure you agree that pollution is a problem but 
>you never discussed other solutions on how to deal with it.  Should 
>we just hope that high levels of ozone go away? 
>
>
>
>My suggestion is to take a market approach and charge the polluters. 
>Go to the source and penalize the ones emitting the harmful gases. 
>Why should children or the elderly (and in reality all of us) have 
>to bear the cost of inhaling polluted air?  What is the cost of 
>polluting the air --- $10, $20 or $30 a day for someone driving a 
>car?  If we charge the polluters, this directly links the cause of 
>the pollution to its source.  This would be more cost effective. 
>
>
>
>CapMetroís current program is trying to entice people to take the 
>bus to help reduce pollution.  However, when the one causing the 
>problem does not bear the true cost (ironically economics describes 
>this as ìthe free rider problemî), the problem will never be 
>corrected.  The polluters must be held accountable for their actions 
>or they wonít change their behavior.  Consequently, drivers should 
>pay by the amount of pollutants their cars emit.
>
>
>
>How many people would then want to take CapMetro?
>
>
>
>
>
>Bob Sessa
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
>http://mail.yahoo.com
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Get on or off this list here:  http://BicycleAustin.info/list


-- 
When in doubt ... ride your bike (or at least write about it).

Fred Meredith
P.O. Box 100 (12702 Lowden Ln for UPS/FedEx)
Manchaca, TX 78652
512/282-1987 (office/home)
512/282-7413 (fax)
512/636-7480 (wireless)
More than you want to know at: http://2merediths.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bicycleaustin.info/private.cgi/forum-bicycleaustin.info/attachments/20040820/18030049/attachment.htm