If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
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Re: If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
#2"On Sunday, President Joe Biden directed his megawatt grin toward a worthwhile cause," that's really laying it on thick. Geez.
Re: If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
#3this is America. any attempt at this sort of taxation is doa, even as far backs as the 70s. It's like " it worked in Norway (or other small, liberal, or collectivist or highly authoritarian country), it can work America too" um un no.
Re: If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
#4Agreed, all road taxes should be based on weight and miles driven. Make sure that it is non-linear, since road damage and weight aren't linear.
And make sure that it affects fuel delivery trucks in the same way that it affects other heavy vehicles.
Anything else would be plainly unfair.
Re: If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
#5At a hefty 3.5T / 7,000 lbs, the Rivians* aren't much lighter than an E-Hummer (4.5T / 9,000 lbs).
Isn't road wear non-linear, with heavy vehicles doing disproportionate damage compared to lighter ones?
Ever noticed how the trucker lanes on the highway are the first to get potholes?
The taxpayers shouldn't be forced to subsidize luxury toys. Let the owners pay a fair amount relative to the strain they're adding to the system (and FWIW, I'm saying this as someone who's immediate family members [plural] own Rivians).
* I was surprised to learn the gross weight of a Rivian the other night at dinner while peeking at a relative's car registration documents on the kitchen counter :p
Re: If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
#6this is America. any attempt at this sort of taxation is doa, even as far backs as the 70s. It's like " it worked in Norway (or other small, liberal, or collectivist or highly authoritarian country), it can work America too" um un no.
America has income taxes, sales taxes, gasoline taxes, property taxes, corporate taxes, I could go on.
And clearly taxes that fund roads are soon going to need to be completely revised, since they can't all come from gas anymore.
Whatever the gas tax is replaced/supplemented with, I would be surprised if it doesn't take into account vehicle weight, since the whole point is to fund road maintenance. And remember that road tolls roads already take weight/wheels into account, so there's plenty of precedent.
Heck, NYC is implementing congestion taxes now, if we want to talk about the possibility of new taxes. Nothing "DOA" about it.
Re: If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
#7this is America. any attempt at this sort of taxation is doa, even as far backs as the 70s. It's like " it worked in Norway (or other small, liberal, or collectivist or highly authoritarian country), it can work America too" um un no.
So, under this political hypothesis, how do you explain the many (popular) toll roads currently in the USA that charge higher prices for heavier vehicles? Does that not constitute acceptance of a similar type of taxation?
Re: If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
#8this is America. any attempt at this sort of taxation is doa, even as far backs as the 70s. It's like " it worked in Norway (or other small, liberal, or collectivist or highly authoritarian country), it can work America too" um un no.
The problem is that the alternative isn’t working either. Americas infrastructure trajectory is highly unsustainable even without decimating the gas tax. Eventually something gives. Lately it’s been bridges.
Re: If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
#9Strange they skipped the step of 1) taxing cars which cause more injuries per mile, 2) taxing resources (including externality cost) so that if you use more, you pay more.
Instead they are taxing a pretty bad proxy for those actual policy goals.
i.e. this incentivizes companies to reduce weight rather than add safety measures, and to use light materials regardless of if they cause more environmental damage. Hypothetical example: carmakers might use more aluminum & titanium, which may cause lots of harm to produce, rather than iron.
Just tax the thing you don't like: pollution & using resources you want to control distribution of.
Wired has really fallen. It's like they don't understand markets or incentives at all. Also - isn't tesla one of the safest cars on the road per mile? So it's really inane to write a hit piece on their alleged safety without say actually looking at their safety results
Re: If You Want a Car This Heavy, You Should Pay Through the Nose
#10Vehicle mileage is taxed at the pump and at the charging station. The material is taxed at sale. Charging an excess tax is just. . . In excess.
The pedestrian crash problem has more to do with our terrible alternative transportation traffic mixing. If the US took a more serious approach for bike lanes and pedestrian accessible infrastructure, the injury rate would decrease. Heavy vehicles is not a new problem. Look at gross vehicle weights of cars and light trucks before 1980.