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Congestion is not a kind of linear cost, and pollution is not its only externality. It also makes everyone else around you slower. Congestion is actually comp
by robrenaud 10y ago
Congestion is not a kind of linear cost, and pollution is not its only externality. It also makes everyone else around you slower. Congestion is actually complicated. Once a place is congested, the marginal addition of a car makes traffic flow relatively much worse, and vice versa for the removal of a car.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_diagram_of_traffic_flow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_diagram_of_traffic...
- lend000 10y agoIt's extremely complicated -- far too complex to effectively tax every aspect, especially with a scheme like the one proposed. It matters whether you're making turns into traffic, where you're going, length of time on the road, how many others are on the route you chose, how quickly you accelerate, how alert of a driver you are, the type of car your drive, whether you're a pedestrian who rushes to go at the end of a signal, etc. But I don't like the idea of taxing people for "being out" when it's a stretch to fundamentally link that to infringing on the rights of others in a way that truly needs to be regulated. They already paid for the roads, and should be able to use them as they please. The petrol tax captures the necessary incentive.