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This seems like a useless place to optimize. Like, what is the total pollution output of all Hummers or similar vehicles? A rounding error, I'm guessing. The on
by pmichaud 4y ago
This seems like a useless place to optimize. Like, what is the total pollution output of all Hummers or similar vehicles? A rounding error, I'm guessing. The only way to make dents is with systemic changes like for entire trucking industry, for example.
- quickthrower2 4y agoWell could be done on all scales. A small Kia with a roofrack / towbar maybe for extra cargo / small trailer is probably big enough for most human A->B needs, even small scale moving house.
- corrral 4y agoLarge trucks and SUVs tend to be so expensive to buy and operate that you can pay for a lot of deliveries and truck rentals per year—maybe a boat slip at the local marina, too—while still saving money. Farther out in the sticks, sure, those things may be so inconvenient or unavailable that it's not an option, but it is for the average Suburban Assault Vehicle owner.
- quickthrower2 4y agoYes, some people really need big vehicles (and/or we need them to keep farming) and so you need exemptions. In the UK there is Red diesel for example that is for farm use / private use that is much cheaper than diesel for the road.
- lostlogin 4y agoWhat is the justification for this subsidy?
- amanaplanacanal 4y agoLikely untaxed for road wear that isn't happening when they aren't driven on roads.
- corrral 4y agoRight—it's not a subsidy, at least in the US, because much or all of the gas tax goes to road maintenance, so if you're not driving on public roads, you don't have to pay it. Doesn't make sense to make e.g. farm tractors that rarely see a public road, pay for public road maintenance when fuel's purchased for them. Or trucks and other vehicles (some farms are really big and may include road-worthy vehicles that hardly drive on a public road more often that the tractors do). If you're going to only drive on private land, you also don't need tags/plates for your car, at least around here. No registration. Just personal property tax and you're good to go.
- aaronbrethorst 4y agoLots of other benefits come from removing urban tanks from the roads. https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/suvs-other-large-vehicles-often-hit-pedestrians-while-turning https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/suvs-other-large-vehicles-o...
- teakettle42 4y agoSounds like a good reason to create protected “no turn on red” crosswalks. The state’s monopoly on violence should be used judiciously and sparingly to secure our individual rights, not as a catch-all tool for coercing (or outright forcing) people into making the choices you want them to.
- undersuit 4y agoI think it's OK for the government to ban vehicles from their roads.
- Dig1t 4y agoThis is very well stated and honestly completely sums up most of the political divide between left and right.
- CorrectHorseBat 4y agoIf by individuals you mean white men, that is.
- RC_ITR 4y agoA very funny quirk of human psychology is people drinking water shipped from Fiji in an Uber Black car on their way to a first class flight thinking “those hicks in hummers are really destroying the environment” We as humans only really internalize the things we see.
- whatshisface 4y agoPiecemeal regulations that treat luxury and small business vehicles separately and ignore the rich's pastimes to crack down on the working man's daily bread are why nothing other than an evenhanded carbon tax could ever be applied in a democratic country.