61–70 of 139 posts
I might as well repeat the overprotective parent perspective. Fatalities are higher if you're in a sedan in an accident with a pickup or semi. There are a lot of trucks on the road as well. Finally, road accidents are the one of the biggest risks young people face. So ignoring the fact that this makes it into an arms race of weight and size, a parents desire for child safety wins against someone's desire to lower car…
There are already many incentives in place for smaller cars: * Use less fuel * Easier to park * Cheaper to buy There is generally not much point in having the government incentivize "good" things. Whatever makes them good is already the incentive, and if that's not enough, then there are probably other issues at play that some feel-good government initiative isn't going to overcome.
* Die when hit by a lifted pick up
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The government can levy large taxes on new big vehicles just like they did with cigarettes. If the largest SUVs had a 25% tax on it, I think most people will not buy it (basically limiting it). Or if the gas prices went to $10 a gallon, people will ditch their big vehicles.
The government can just directly subsidize the vehicles they like, as they are attempting to do with electric cars. Define a weight and drop taxes/offer refunds for people who buy them, see more of them appear.
Subsidizing smaller cars is a bad idea because they still have negative externalities, just less so. The government shouldn't be favoring driving a small car over walking, but that's exactly what a small (or electric) car subsidy does.
The reason we subsidize EVs instead of taxing gas-powered cars is because the latter is politically unpopular, not because the former is a better designed policy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you drive it on a private road?
Does the road being public mean that my family should have been forced to drive two cars, thus polluting more, all because of some people who can't stay out of other's business? I understand the argument here, but I think it's bad. Government does get a say in what is driven on roads: safe cars that are often inspected and pose less danger to those around and inside them. That's already a lot of restriction, now we l…
You're depicting one side of a question with a practical example ("more pollution") and the other side as though they are simply assholes ("they just can't stay out of other's business"). There is a reasonable version of both sides.
Do vehicle insurance rates factor in car size? I would imagine that larger vehicles result in higher payouts to 3rd parties in collisions. Maybe it is canceled out by a decrease in payouts to the policy holder.
I believe the government should increase yearly registration costs exponentially based on lower MPG. If you get 10-18 MPG... you must pay 10 times the registration fee that a 40-50 MPG hybird pays.
20 MPG * 6 > 42 MPG * 1
A larger vehicle full of passengers is often more efficient than a smaller one. Are we going to regulate minimum passengers per vehicle size? I'm not sure this proposal solves the intended problem in a meaningful way. I'd rather see hefty taxes on fuel. This might yield better incentives toward urbanization, alternative transportation, and mass-transportation infrastructure.
Source: https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/state...
This is just an overall death statistic in cars, not ones where the size of the car was actually to blame for a death. Given such a small number, I think the government can forgo regulation.
Edit: Yes this covers pedestrian deaths
I believe the government should increase yearly registration costs exponentially based on lower MPG. If you get 10-18 MPG... you must pay 10 times the registration fee that a 40-50 MPG hybird pays.
In other words, a policy like this would require a fair bit of balance (make sure cars stay on the road for long enough), otherwise it risks increasing pollution.
I might as well repeat the overprotective parent perspective. Fatalities are higher if you're in a sedan in an accident with a pickup or semi. There are a lot of trucks on the road as well. Finally, road accidents are the one of the biggest risks young people face. So ignoring the fact that this makes it into an arms race of weight and size, a parents desire for child safety wins against someone's desire to lower car…
And of course, "the fact that this makes it into an arms race of weight and size" is absolutely not something that we can ignore. This is a perfect example of a situation where everyone acting in their own rational self interest is way worse for everyone, and is why the government should be regulating the size of cars.