4 ms·

Just 2x more dangerous than walking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort#Additional http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort#Additional

throwaway_yy2Di 13y ago
By the premisses of that article, I suggest bicycling should be taxed about $5/mile [0], to properly internalize the risk of death. Not just to counter ignorance/apathy, but because of the external costs of death to family, other people, and the broader economy. And maybe a separate surcharge to account for social health costs treating preventable injury. [0] using the article's valuation of $50/micromort; 10 miles/micromort => $5/mile
- TDAnderson 13y ago
  There should be a website, like an online exchange, where you can shop around for the best taxation plan for your bike riding habits.
- mikeash 13y ago
  Let's attack the problem of external costs of death at the source. We should tax people heavily for making friends or having families. After all, everybody is going to die someday, and a person who dies with nobody to mourn him costs the least.
- dmm 13y ago
  By the same calculation you should tax $50 per 230 miles driven in a car. According to the US DOT the average vehicle travels 12,334 miles per year, so you have an average tax of $2681. Also a tax of $75 should be attached to each bottle of wine and a 16 ounce jar of peanut butter should have a $40 tax.
- VLM 13y ago
  A couple datapoints, my home town charges $10/yr for a bike license sticker which is legally required to ride a bike in town (although rarely enforced against white people and/or kids) Also the DNR maintains a network of state wide bike trails and charges something near $30/yr for an annual trail pass. Also you'd have to discount the $5/mile by the effect of exercise. Perhaps its net effect is only 50 cents per mile for adults. In that case we may already be taxing bikes nearly that much, at least on average. People laugh at me when I say bicycles are probably going to be outlawed for children soon. I'm cool with that; they laughed when I said smoking would be outlawed too. It is probably safer to buy a kid a lawn dart set or some packs of matches than a bicycle, and I'm just being honest about a minor hobby of mine. You can stack their little bodies like cordwood every year across the country, seems like a lot of death for fundamentally not accomplishing too much.
- paulnewmanseyes 13y ago
  That's not what an externality is. The article suggests that people already have an internalised value of around $5/mile. Since cyclists rarely kill others, an externality tax based on micromorts would hardly hit them at all. Compare that to motor travel, though…
sneak 13y ago
It's not about the risk of death, it's about the risk of neurological damage. Death is not suffering. Being made stupid would be.
- agilebyte 13y ago
  A quick search turned up a paper on Netherlands (population 16.77 mil): ... 9,200 sustain serious injury in a bicycle crash. A third of these seriously injured bicycle casualties are diagnosed with head or brain injuries (32%) http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheets/UK/FS_Bicycle_helmets.pdf http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheets/UK/FS_Bicycle_helmets.... Showing 211 cyclists have a serious head injury per billion km cycled... Discussion: http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2010/08/brain-injuries-and-dutch-cyclist.html http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2010/08/brain-injuries-... Edit: accounting

throwaway_yy2Di 13y ago

By the premisses of that article, I suggest bicycling should be taxed about $5/mile [0], to properly internalize the risk of death. Not just to counter ignorance/apathy, but because of the external costs of death to family, other people, and the broader economy. And maybe a separate surcharge to account for social health costs treating preventable injury. [0] using the article's valuation of $50/micromort; 10 miles/micromort => $5/mile

TDAnderson 13y ago
There should be a website, like an online exchange, where you can shop around for the best taxation plan for your bike riding habits.
mikeash 13y ago
Let's attack the problem of external costs of death at the source. We should tax people heavily for making friends or having families. After all, everybody is going to die someday, and a person who dies with nobody to mourn him costs the least.
dmm 13y ago
By the same calculation you should tax $50 per 230 miles driven in a car. According to the US DOT the average vehicle travels 12,334 miles per year, so you have an average tax of $2681. Also a tax of $75 should be attached to each bottle of wine and a 16 ounce jar of peanut butter should have a $40 tax.
VLM 13y ago
A couple datapoints, my home town charges $10/yr for a bike license sticker which is legally required to ride a bike in town (although rarely enforced against white people and/or kids) Also the DNR maintains a network of state wide bike trails and charges something near $30/yr for an annual trail pass. Also you'd have to discount the $5/mile by the effect of exercise. Perhaps its net effect is only 50 cents per mile for adults. In that case we may already be taxing bikes nearly that much, at least on average. People laugh at me when I say bicycles are probably going to be outlawed for children soon. I'm cool with that; they laughed when I said smoking would be outlawed too. It is probably safer to buy a kid a lawn dart set or some packs of matches than a bicycle, and I'm just being honest about a minor hobby of mine. You can stack their little bodies like cordwood every year across the country, seems like a lot of death for fundamentally not accomplishing too much.
paulnewmanseyes 13y ago
That's not what an externality is. The article suggests that people already have an internalised value of around $5/mile. Since cyclists rarely kill others, an externality tax based on micromorts would hardly hit them at all. Compare that to motor travel, though…

sneak 13y ago

It's not about the risk of death, it's about the risk of neurological damage. Death is not suffering. Being made stupid would be.

agilebyte 13y ago
A quick search turned up a paper on Netherlands (population 16.77 mil): ... 9,200 sustain serious injury in a bicycle crash. A third of these seriously injured bicycle casualties are diagnosed with head or brain injuries (32%) http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheets/UK/FS_Bicycle_helmets.pdf http://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheets/UK/FS_Bicycle_helmets.... Showing 211 cyclists have a serious head injury per billion km cycled... Discussion: http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2010/08/brain-injuries-and-dutch-cyclist.html http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2010/08/brain-injuries-... Edit: accounting