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Denmark used to tax cars based on weight as it was considered that weight was equal to wear and tear on the roads. Although that logic should probably have been
by wodenokoto 2y ago
Denmark used to tax cars based on weight as it was considered that weight was equal to wear and tear on the roads. Although that logic should probably have been weight * distance driven.
Now there’s a fun tax to implement!
https://da.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A6gtafgift https://da.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A6gtafgift (Sorry in danish only)
- notpushkin 2y agoI think just taxing the tires is the solution! More wear on roads should closely correlate with more wear on tires, and each tire likely has a lifetime determined by weight * distance. You need to account for tire structure, but even if you tax all tires the same, it should be a good approximation of what we're looking for.
- jackvalentine 2y agoThis is a good way to incentivise people to buy the shittiest tyres they can and stretch them well past usable life because it’ll cost them a motza to replace.
- ed_elliott_asc 2y agoIs there a way to tax tires (tyres?) based on wear and not when they have holes in?
- jfim 2y agoOne potential way to do this would be to weigh the tires at sale and charge a tax based on the weight of the tire. When the tire is ultimately disposed of, a refund is issued based on the weight of the disposed tire. This would encourage both avoiding tire wear and proper disposal of tires. That assumes obviously that people don't cheat the system by making tires heavier somehow when returning them.
- bboygravity 2y agoWeight * distance is actually literally fun for governments to implement. Why? Because it gives them more taxes, bigger government and as a bonus more spying on citizens. The Dutch government has been talking about this type of tax for decades. The idea is to put a mandatory live-tracking device in every car that sends data to the government about where you are at all times. Currently the tax is based on weight and type of energy source of the car and some of the highest taxes on fuel in the world. This boils down to the same as the weight * distance tax. But why keep it simple if you could complicate it further AND get free live spying as a bonus?
- bcraven 2y agoIn UK my yearly MOT records how far my car has driven. Taxing distance doesn't need to track _where_ the car has been, just how far it's gone.
- Ntrails 2y agoI seem to recall when selling cars the V5 transfer also has a mileage (so easy to attribute) It isn't precisely easy (MOT and tax timings won't line up etc) and arrears rather than advance etc. We definitely have enough data to do a fair approximation - just high operational overheads to collect
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoThat depends. Do you also tax when the car is driven outside the country?
- rdsubhas 2y agoIt's legitimate to track entry and exit on national borders though. A tax exception based on entry/exit times is doable and better than constant geo tracking.
- kordite 2y agoIt's utterly insane, but there is no equivalent to the MOT in the US. There's an emissions test, but not a safety test. I don't know if mileage is recorded at the emissions test.
- RobinL 2y agoIt's actually a fourth power law, not a linear relationship. So trucks are polynomially more damaging. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
- tonyedgecombe 2y agoI wonder if that applies to the amount of material the tyres shed as well.