BIKE: Taxing cars by the miles

[John SomdeCerff]

I'd vote for increasing the gas tax AND taxing heavy trucks (anything 
including Hummers over 6,000 pounds GVW) based on weight and distance.  
I've read that the "hidden costs" due to pollution, etc. of burning 
gasoline are on the order of $1/gallon.  The hybrids tend to be cleaner, 
so its OK that they don't pay as much.

Roger Baker wrote:

> [Hey, wow. This would both discourage suburban sprawl and encourage  
> bicycle use at the same time -- so lets run it up the flagpole here 
> in  Texas!
> 
> 
> SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday appointed a new  
> Department
> of Motor Vehicles director who has advocated taxing motorists for 
> every  mile
> they drive - by placing tracking devices in their cars.
> 
> The idea would mean a significant overhaul of how California collects  
> taxes
> to maintain its often-crumbling roads. Under the plan, the state gas  
> tax -
> now 18 cents a gallon - would be replaced with a tax on every mile  
> traveled
> by each car and truck. 

You could double this to 36 cents a mile and people wouldn't really 
notice it much at the pumps.  Gas has already jumped something like 80 
cents/gallon so what is another 18?  Unfortunately it would still be far 
short of the $1/gallon of hidden costs.  At an extra 18 cents/gal you 
would have money left over to help get people out of their cars and onto 
mass transit.  At $1/gal you could apply funds to help cover medical 
expenses, etc. caused by the pollution.

> The idea has been circulating because more Californians are driving
> fuel-efficient cars, the review warned. Less gasoline consumed means  
> less
> money for the state's coffers from the gas tax - even though people are
> driving and damaging roads just as much.

The easy solution would be to simply raising the tax so people are still 
paying the same, on average.  This encourages the use of more fuel 
efficient vehicles that have many extra benefits like the reducing the 
trade deficit, reducing the oil money funding terrorists, reducing 
pollution, etc.  No extra paperwork for anybody.

> "Electric vehicles, fuel-cell
> vehicles or other future fuels would not be taxed under" the existing
> per-gallon system, the report said. 

So?  This is an easy way to encourage there use without having to 
directly subsidize them.  Also, is CA like most states where other taxes 
that everybody pays subsidize the roads, whether they drive a car or not?

> ...
> Currently, cars with high fuel efficiency and large trucks don't  
> generate
> enough revenue from fuel taxes to pay for the burden they place on  
> roads,
> said Randall Pozdena, managing director of ECONorthwest, an economic
> consulting firm. A large truck, he said, can do as much damage on a city
> street as 10,000 cars, but it still pays the same amount of per-gallon
> gasoline tax, assuming the gas was purchased in California in the first
> place. 

I've heard that a fully loaded truck causes "only" 8,000 times the 
damage.  Either way it is very apparent that they need to pay much, much 
more than they are now paying.  Getting rid of this "hidden" subsidy to 
the trucking industry nation wide would have many great side effects.  
It would suddenly become more affordable to buy locally grown produce 
instead of trucking food the average of 1,500 miles it is today.  It 
would pay shippers to use railroads (which are designed to handle heavy 
loads) instead of destroying our roads.  Vastly down sizing the trucking 
industry would greatly reduce the $$ needed to maintain our roads, 
letting us keep more of our hard earned money.  Think about it - if only 
even 1% of the traffic is trucks, they are still causing 98 to 99% of 
the damage.  Reduce their mileage by, say 3/4s by making them pay their 
fair share, would pretty much reduce maintenance costs on our roads by 3/4s.

This tax would mean little additional paperwork for the truckers - they 
should already know how much weight they carrying and how many miles 
they are driving.  It would mean more paperwork and hassle for people 
driving Hummers and other large SUV's, but maybe this will discourage 
their use and make the roads safer for us people that drive more 
reasonably sized vehicles.

To sum it up - I think we should "level the playing field" and let 
capitalism save us the money we are wasting on the roads.

John Somdecerff