Results tagged “gastax”

An urban legend claims that Boston's streets are haphazard because they trace the cow paths of the first European settlers. While that may be a bit of a stretch, it takes no leap of faith to say that our roadways make it difficult to drive...or walk. An article in the February issue of Scientific American adds some game theory to that assertion.

Deval Patrick has a plan. He wants to get rid of the Turnpike Authority (yay!) and increase the gas tax (boo!), which hasn't been raised in nearly 20 years. Globe and Herald commenters are up in arms about the gas tax increase, which will take away a few dollars a week from their apparently near-empty pockets. These are the people who kept driving when gas was $4/gallon, and are now complaining that it might be $2.20. Make sense to you?

Planning to drive a mile? You may soon be charged $.0025 for it! Massachusetts is one of a few states considering a quarter-cent surcharge for every mile driven in a state. It's like a gas tax, but creepier (because based on actual mileage determined by Big-Brother-esque GPS) and crappier (because charging by mile reduces the incentive to get a fuel-efficient car). Deval Patrick says he prefers solutions that are "faster, cheaper, simpler"; this one doesn't appear to fit any of those criteria, as it'd cost time and money to implement, and create more data for the state to track. Oregon has a program that works something like ours would, but the state paid people to participate in it, charged a fee based on recorded mileage, and then reduced the gas tax to compensate for the fee charged. Doesn't sound cheap or simple. A similar system has been used in London, with one appealing feature: drivers have to pay more money to drive during rush hour. Incentive to use public transportation or just stay off the roads is always a plus, but this charge-by-mile thing has a lot of kinks to work out before it'll look useful in any way.

• The city closed off the Old Granary Burying Ground because of a sinkhole. [Universal Hub]
• Stocks fell again after the bailout announcement. [Globe]
• People don't like the idea of a gas tax increase. Because driving is a right we deserve, not a privilege we pay for! [Herald]

We thought Herald commenters were bad, but now it looks like some of their ranks may have shifted over to the Globe. In response to an article suggesting that the U.S. should follow in Europe's footsteps by raising gas taxes, multiple commenters theorize that Europe is the size of Texas; hence, raising gas taxes would never work, because we dearly need our gas-guzzlers to get around our great, giant nation. Never mind that France is nearly as big as Texas, that the continent covers much of our country, or that Canadians (whose country is, sorry to disappoint, bigger than the U.S.—if you don't take our inflated egos into account) pay more gas tax than we do yet still manage to get around their maple-leafed communist nation somehow. Europe will surely be interested to hear that it's now the Lone Star Continent.