I've spent a lot of time in Europe, and one of the first things I noticed out there was the price of gas and the tightly urbanized cities. These two things go hand-in-hand, as the higher the price of petrol, the more centralized and efficient the urban centers become. The most expensive gas in this country is barely over $3.00 a gallon, while Swedes and Germans expect to pay more than twice that for the same amount of gasoline. The Europeans take these high prices and turn them into opportunities to modernize their urban lifestyle; whether with centralized populations, highly efficient cars like the Smart Car, Vespa and Mini Cooper, and as incentives to abandon cars altogether in favor of walking and public transport.
Here in Southern California, we spend the majority of our car time sitting in traffic. Nothing gets me more frustrated than sitting in a traffic jam that has no reason other than for people being unable to merge and driving too slowly in the fast lanes. The glut of cars is only one part of this problem, it's also the type of cars on the road. When there are 100 cars on the road here in San Diego, 30 of them are SUVs, 30 are Pick-Ups, 10 are massive sedans and the last 30 or so are regular American mid-size and compacts. Motorcycles are not that common here, and scooters are basically non-existant. For all of those 30 SUVs on the highway, I'd say 2 of them have ever been off road, and only 5 of them have more than a single person in it. The pickups are being driven solo 90% of the time. When there are that many huge vehicles on the road, they crowd the roads, which is not to mention the fact that most of the people who drive those things have no clue how to handle such a large vehicle.
SUVs and pickups have a purpose: Ice hockey players who have road trips and have to carry their equipment, skiiers who take frequent trips to the mountains with friends and/or family, gardeners and contractors who haul materials, Mormons families with a glut of kids...other than that, there's not too many reasons to have an SUV other than coolness. When I see a 21 year old sorority girl in PB parking her Tahoe crooked over two spots I cringe, since she could have just as easily asked Daddy for a Beemer 328. I used to drive SUVs when I was a teenager, and the 15 miles per gallon I got was definitely a good sign that an SUV wasn't exactly practical for me. I don't exactly drive a hybrid (Mercedes C280), but my car gets almost twice what I got when I had a Grand Cherokee or Ford Explorer.
What I wish our energy department would do is: Impose a large tax on premium gasoline (tripling the price would be good), as anyone who can afford to have a car that requires super unleaded should be able to withstand an extra $20-40 a week in gas. If not, they shouldn't be wasting their money on a performance vehicle. Use the new gas taxes to fund research into alternative energy and to subsidize the energy needs of people in the lower-income brackets. Subsidize the reasearch on and purchase of alternative and renewable energy sources.
If the government did this, it would cause some short-term pain. But as my father says (he was head of energy policy for the Federal Energy Administration in the 70s during a previous energy crisis) "Sometimes you need short-term pain in order to have a long-term gain". People always think that lower taxes will help them, but lower taxes generally only help the rich, this gas tax would be the same thing. At first the poorer Americans would feel a little pressure from the high prices, but we'd adjust and be much better off for it.
This is how I see the results of my gas tax plan:
People find that living 20 miles away from where they work to be too costly and inefficient, so they move into a more convenient and centralized location. People will also find that SUVs and other gas guzzlers are not worth the cost so they trade them in for more urban-friendly vehicles like the Smart Car or Vespa. The high price of gas also causes the total volume of gas consumed to drop to the point where the reliance on OPEC and Middle Eastern, Nigerian and Venezuelan oil will no longer control our foreign policy.
Unfortunately for us, the American voter would flip if the gas prices in this country approached European standards. People complain even when our gas costs 1/2 of what everyone else pays, and 90% of Americans will never vote to raise taxes on something that they use. But this country needs something to shake things up and eliminate the problems of the sprawling American metropolis.
Here in Southern California, we spend the majority of our car time sitting in traffic. Nothing gets me more frustrated than sitting in a traffic jam that has no reason other than for people being unable to merge and driving too slowly in the fast lanes. The glut of cars is only one part of this problem, it's also the type of cars on the road. When there are 100 cars on the road here in San Diego, 30 of them are SUVs, 30 are Pick-Ups, 10 are massive sedans and the last 30 or so are regular American mid-size and compacts. Motorcycles are not that common here, and scooters are basically non-existant. For all of those 30 SUVs on the highway, I'd say 2 of them have ever been off road, and only 5 of them have more than a single person in it. The pickups are being driven solo 90% of the time. When there are that many huge vehicles on the road, they crowd the roads, which is not to mention the fact that most of the people who drive those things have no clue how to handle such a large vehicle.
SUVs and pickups have a purpose: Ice hockey players who have road trips and have to carry their equipment, skiiers who take frequent trips to the mountains with friends and/or family, gardeners and contractors who haul materials, Mormons families with a glut of kids...other than that, there's not too many reasons to have an SUV other than coolness. When I see a 21 year old sorority girl in PB parking her Tahoe crooked over two spots I cringe, since she could have just as easily asked Daddy for a Beemer 328. I used to drive SUVs when I was a teenager, and the 15 miles per gallon I got was definitely a good sign that an SUV wasn't exactly practical for me. I don't exactly drive a hybrid (Mercedes C280), but my car gets almost twice what I got when I had a Grand Cherokee or Ford Explorer.
What I wish our energy department would do is: Impose a large tax on premium gasoline (tripling the price would be good), as anyone who can afford to have a car that requires super unleaded should be able to withstand an extra $20-40 a week in gas. If not, they shouldn't be wasting their money on a performance vehicle. Use the new gas taxes to fund research into alternative energy and to subsidize the energy needs of people in the lower-income brackets. Subsidize the reasearch on and purchase of alternative and renewable energy sources.
If the government did this, it would cause some short-term pain. But as my father says (he was head of energy policy for the Federal Energy Administration in the 70s during a previous energy crisis) "Sometimes you need short-term pain in order to have a long-term gain". People always think that lower taxes will help them, but lower taxes generally only help the rich, this gas tax would be the same thing. At first the poorer Americans would feel a little pressure from the high prices, but we'd adjust and be much better off for it.
This is how I see the results of my gas tax plan:
People find that living 20 miles away from where they work to be too costly and inefficient, so they move into a more convenient and centralized location. People will also find that SUVs and other gas guzzlers are not worth the cost so they trade them in for more urban-friendly vehicles like the Smart Car or Vespa. The high price of gas also causes the total volume of gas consumed to drop to the point where the reliance on OPEC and Middle Eastern, Nigerian and Venezuelan oil will no longer control our foreign policy.
Unfortunately for us, the American voter would flip if the gas prices in this country approached European standards. People complain even when our gas costs 1/2 of what everyone else pays, and 90% of Americans will never vote to raise taxes on something that they use. But this country needs something to shake things up and eliminate the problems of the sprawling American metropolis.
posted by Dan Pasternack at 3:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home