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You already pay a monthly fee to have a crap drive to work in your car. If only you could be charged for the negative externalities of driving, the actual cost

You already pay a monthly fee to have a crap drive to work in your car. If only you could be charged for the negative externalities of driving, the actual cost of maintaining the road, to park your car, to fill your gas tank...maybe you'd have a different opinion.

hueving 12y ago
I wouldn't call a 10 minute car ride a 'crop drive'. That's a pretty good commute. Cost incurred by one car of maintaining the road is essentially negligible. The majority of road damage comes from heavy vehicles or weather. Additionally it's interesting you want to 'charge for externalities' when it's actually the cyclists getting a free ride in this category. License fees and gasoline taxes contribute to road funding. Nothing related to cycling does. I agree with parking, but only if it costs something. If the office already has it, you not using it will not likely save the company any money by refusing to use it. The only externality you might not be paying enough for to drive to work is the gas filling (assuming non electric). However, the numbers regarding the impact of CO2 are mostly just made up from sums of imagined future or previous natural disasters that can't be directly linked to CO2 emissions.
alphapapa 12y ago
You mean the car he can use to go to the store, to visit family, to go on vacation, to drive in bad weather? The car he pays property tax, fuel tax, insurance, license fees, registration fees, etc on? Yeah, all those unrealized externalities...
- andrewliebchen 12y ago
  Give me a break. Gas taxes are suppose to pay for roads don't keep up with inflation. All the savings of deferred maintenance on our highway system could account for that, but maybe not.
bane 12y ago
I'd still pay most of those things because I still have to own a car and taxes. At 35mpg, how often do you think I have to worry about gas? Peddling to work only eliminates the mild inconvenience of filling up my tank once every 2.5 weeks or so.

hueving 12y ago

I wouldn't call a 10 minute car ride a 'crop drive'. That's a pretty good commute. Cost incurred by one car of maintaining the road is essentially negligible. The majority of road damage comes from heavy vehicles or weather. Additionally it's interesting you want to 'charge for externalities' when it's actually the cyclists getting a free ride in this category. License fees and gasoline taxes contribute to road funding. Nothing related to cycling does. I agree with parking, but only if it costs something. If the office already has it, you not using it will not likely save the company any money by refusing to use it. The only externality you might not be paying enough for to drive to work is the gas filling (assuming non electric). However, the numbers regarding the impact of CO2 are mostly just made up from sums of imagined future or previous natural disasters that can't be directly linked to CO2 emissions.

alphapapa 12y ago

You mean the car he can use to go to the store, to visit family, to go on vacation, to drive in bad weather? The car he pays property tax, fuel tax, insurance, license fees, registration fees, etc on? Yeah, all those unrealized externalities...

andrewliebchen 12y ago
Give me a break. Gas taxes are suppose to pay for roads don't keep up with inflation. All the savings of deferred maintenance on our highway system could account for that, but maybe not.

bane 12y ago

I'd still pay most of those things because I still have to own a car and taxes. At 35mpg, how often do you think I have to worry about gas? Peddling to work only eliminates the mild inconvenience of filling up my tank once every 2.5 weeks or so.