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Politics : The Citizens Manifesto -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (114)	6/15/2005 9:41:57 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 492

re: As would any tax on current cars that don't get good gas mileage. If you only tax new cars, than you encourage people to hold on to older cars, which may pollute more and use more gas, as long as possible (except for a brief flurry of buying before the new tax takes effect). Maybe you don't get the concept. Efficient cars would get a significant credit. Buy a Dodge Neon, that gets over 30 MPG, and you might get a $8K tax credit... very compelling on a $17K car. Does that lead to a replacement cycle from inefficient cars to efficient cars? You bet it does. re: People can't stop commuting to work but over time more expensive gasoline causes people to find ways to reduce their commute, and encourages greater use of public transportation. If more people use public transportation it might expand and become more useable because it will cover more areas. Public transportation is an issue I could support (having grown up in Chicago with maybe the best pubic transportation system in the country). But can you sell it, with the tax investment as a political issue in this country? I doubt it. re: Well I don't think you ever expected to get unanimity, but I'd have to strongly oppose this particular plan. Never expected unanimity. If we could build a consensus on 10 pragmatic issues, even if most people disagreed with 2 or 3, then I think we are doing a hell of a lot better than the current political parties. I hope you decide to contribute, and think in terms of results for Citizens, not ideology. John

To: TimF who wrote (114)	6/16/2005 1:40:28 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 492

"causes people to find ways to reduce their commute, and encourages greater use of public transportation." Public transportation has to exist before it can be used. It is by no means universal. You can make the argument that it should be, but the fact of the matter is that it isn't. To further complicate the situation, people already live where they live and work where they work and it may not be possible for them to change their arrangements on short notice. Raising the gas taxes to a high level would cause a great deal of pain. John's car tax wouldn't. As an added bonus, it would actually encourage a replacement cycle with smaller more efficient cars. Since you mentioned it, let's look at the European gas situation. We just did some traveling through Germany and the Benelux. Gas prices were between 0.97 and 1.28 Euros per liter. That makes gas between $4.54 and $6 a gallon at current exchange rates. Most of the cars on the road were similar to what we were driving, a VW Polo with a 1.2 liter engine and gets around 5 liters per 100 km or about 46 mpg. And then there are things like the Smart Car... There was an occasional SUV, no clue what kind of mileage those get. If most of those cars were any smaller, you'd have to lace them on. Now compare that with the traffic on the typical Interstate in the US. It is going to take a number of years to get people to switch to cars like that. In addition, the roads would need to be upgraded, the suspensions on those cars can't take the potholes and poor road patches that are common on our streets...

To: TimF who wrote (114)	6/16/2005 6:26:13 PM
From: SilentZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 492

>People can't stop commuting to work but over time more expensive gasoline causes people to find ways to reduce their commute, and encourages greater use of public transportation. If more people use public transportation it might expand and become more useable because it will cover more areas. I think the better way to encourage public transportation is to make it better! There currently is nowhere in my area where I can get to faster or more inexpensively by any other mode of transportation than by car. So, I drive everywhere. -Z