Highway Trust Fund Empty
Isn't it funny that when John McCain proposed suspending the federal gas tax, he didn't mention that the Highway Trust Fund is already bankruptCome on, people. Our key interstate highways are on the order of 50 years old. Many of the original interstate freeway bridges have exceeded their design life and are literally falling apart. We need to
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yeah, i was going to respond with something similar. the problem as i see it is mainly for people who live in more rural areas and are impoverished. a huge portion of those people would very happily use public transportation rather than owning a car were it available to them. but there are towns where it genuinely isn't possible to get to/from work by bus. riding a bike in the city is arguably less dangerous than in rural areas because even though there's more traffic and thus you're in more danger of getting hit by a car, there's also more infrastructure. if you get a flat and don't have a spare, you're probably within distance of a bike shop or a pay phone. in a rural area you're riding somewhere with no bike lanes, possibly no street lamps, and where if something goes wrong it could be hours before someone passes by to help you. which isn't as big of a deal for people who have a cellphone... but for those who don't, i imagine it'd be a scary idea. (and cellphones don't even work in some of those areas.)
the way i see it, people who live in cities don't really have much of an excuse for not carpooling, not using public transportation, not learning to ride a bike etc. for most of us, if we drive alone it's because we are lazy, impatient, etc. vs. it's truly our only option.
but we are also the people who are the first to get choices. we have buses that run pretty often. we have bike shops, free bike classes, people give away bikes on craigslist all the time. etc. etc.
if you raise the gas price a huge amount, it would totally have a good impact on people in cities. we'd switch our behavior for the better. but it'd have a crushing impact on poor people, because nobody is rushing to set up public transportation for a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, and nobody cares whether joe loses his job at wal-mart or wendy gets fired from the factory. even if it was mandated that public transportation be put in place by the government, they'd still be the last to get it.
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The transition has to be made. Doing it with taxes, rather than waiting for declining oil production to force the price increase, gives us tools (i.e. money) to make the transition smoother.
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