The $6.66-a-Gallon Solution

The New York Times ^ | April 30, 2005 | Simon Romero

[pjsbro]

They became wealthy liberals...

[calex59]

I'm just making the point that the Republicans and many of the FReepers are accomplishing what the Sierra Club and the Dems could only dream of - that being to stop people from driving.

Where are your facts and figures to back this up? What makes you make this claim? Tell us why you think we, and the republican politicians,are making it impossible to drive in this country? Why do dems like yourself try these tatics on FR? Who do you think will believe you? Ok, answer these questions and I will have some more.

[whipitgood]

Marvelous! A Texan who understands the socialist mentality of the state's politicians!!! I love it!

[oh8eleven]

Something is rotten in Singapore.
Don't they have enviro-whackos there?
 

[hellinahandcart]

You vill pay the $6.66/gallon and you vill like it!

[pjsbro]

Not yet...they're still in the early stages of enjoying the fruits of capitalism...too early to start feeling guilty.

[ol' hoghead]

for the common good? Sounds like she is Norwegian Karl Marx.

[traumer]

$6.66 a galon... that's IT !

[kennedy]

At a pub in Oslo, for instance, a pint of beer might cost the equivalent of $12 and an individual frozen pizza $16.

$12 for a beer? Time to add Norway to the list of places I will never go.

[B4Ranch]

Is that a bird dropping? Don't stop too quick in front of my 1 ton Dodge pickup. Splat!

[sten]

What would be more interesting would be to combine these figures with an average number of miles driven per day. The United States is a very spread out country. Many older countries, established during the domination of horse travel, have cities that are relatively small and confined compared to America's urban sprawl.

I believe the size of a city would be restricted by the travel time from any point to another. My ball park would be 15-25 minutes across. On horseback, with an average speed of 20MPH tops, that would be roughly 5 to 8 miles across. The rule of thumb still holds for many American cities that saw growth after the 1900s; average of 35MPH, it would be 9 to 15 miles across.

[B4Ranch]

>>you vill like it!<<

Wrong attitude for assertive Americans. We've had one small trial tea party this year.... the Minutemen, a great success. We're going to have a few more .... States saying no to "No Child Left Behind" and canceling the benefits for illegals.

We decide what we will like, not the tax bureaus.

[Grut]

Sounds like she is Norwegian.

Nej, nej!

[Old Professer]

There's no such thing as real money when push comes to shove.

[logician2u]

Hmm.

So Norway is not dependent on those filthy Arab oil producers for its energy needs, a goal that some folks in high office in the US suggest we should aspire to?

But, in spite of that, they have super-high gas prices, even if you don't figure in the gas tax that, according to the article, accounts for 67% of the price.

Note the article did not say gas taxes were 67 percent.

It said they were 67 percent of the price.

That would mean a before-tax price of $3.99 if you don't count Norway's VAT, which is about 24% I believe. If the VAT is applied first, the price would be on the order of $3.22 per gallon, about twice the before-tax price we're currently paying in the US.

Something is inconsistent about this.

If the NYT reporter did dome digging, I would hope he might find another story lurking beneath the one he wrote.

[Eurotwit]

Hey!!

Don't make fun of my party :-P

Cheers.

[BobL]

The name calling again.

The fact is when you punish people for driving by charging them 20 to 75 cents per mile in tolls, versus 2 to 3 cents per mile for the gas tax, you do change their behavior.

A combined state and federal gas tax of no greater than 4 cents per mile (or 80 cents per gallon, if your car gets 20 miles per gallon) could fund every needed freeway in this country.

You may consider charging people obscene amounts of money to do something most people feel is a necessity (i.e., driving a car) as something fitting of Republicans, but I consider it something right out of the Democrat and Sierra Club playbook - and if this was Clinton's idea, I'd oppose it just as much.

I can't help it if the Republicans are the ones leading this new form of government money grabbing.

[BobL]

"Marvelous! A Texan who understands the socialist mentality of the state's politicians!!! I love it!"

I've lost the battle here. We're getting 4000 miles of these privately funded and operated toll roads. The same company building our first toll road charges 20 cents (US) per mile in Canada for a similar road. Our combined state and local gas tax here in Texas is 2 cents per mile (if your car gets 20 MPG). The company got monopolistic-type protections in Canada against the province of Ontario even widening government owned highways (if they would draw traffic from the toll road).

Just yesterday the Republicans started talking about embedding RFIDs in the registration sticker of EVERY single car in Texas - so as to tell who's uninsured (yep). Meanwhile Republican Governor Perry is sending representatives to a conference to figure out how to use GPS to toll everyone, for every mile they drive.

People may call this garbage the free market or Republicanism, but it ain't the Republican Party that I grew up with.

[editor-surveyor]

"Who buys frozen pizza at a pub?"

I don't know, but chances are that anything you might buy in Norge is frozen! :o)

[BobL]

"do you have a source for your claim that a gas tax paid for road only costs 1/10th the cost of a toll road?? I find that hard to believe."

It is tough to believe, but the gas tax is 2 cents per mile here in Texas (if you get 20 MPG, lower if you get more). Tolls on our 4000 miles of private toll roads will be on the order of 20 cents per mile, as they are in Canada (same company, some monopoly for them). While it's true that we can't build much for 2 cents per mile (40 cents per gallon), we can build a heck of a lot for 3 cents per mile.

I just have a problem with summarily jettisoning the freeway system in this country, for toll roads, when the only reason for doing so is a bunch of Republicans that treat government highway spending no different than government welfare spending.