🚀 go-pugleaf

chipmunk@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Matt Monks) writes:
>curt@ekhadafi.austin.ibm.com writes:
>>Point 1:
>>	Mass transportation will never work in Austin.  It's just too
>>	spread out here.  It works in Boston, NY, San Francisco, and
>>	Europe,  because those places are dense.
>>
>>	A bus between UT and downtown will work but that about covers
>>	it.
>
>     Buses between UT and everywhere.  As a UT student without a car,

ok, i'll buy that, as long as the busses aren't usually empty and I don't
have to subsidise it.
 
>     $4/gallon gas is an excellent idea.   Let the people
>know ahead of time that the price will increase, and do it slowly
>but steadily over many years... wean us from our dependence on gas-burning
>vehicles and encourage efficiency.

I don't know if it's an excellent idea or not but the method you've
described for implementing it is sound.  An even better idea, assumming
that carbon emissions is what you really want to avoid, is a carbon
tax.  Coal would be taxed more than gas, gas more than natural gas,
etc.  Nuclear and hydro would be untaxed under this method, but you
could come up with a waste disposal and destruction of species tax for
each of them respectively.  The carbon tax was originally proposed by
The Economist, or that's where I saw it.

The advantage of this sort of tax system is that it lets the market
decide as much as possible.  The worst of all worlds is a government
mandated X mpg rule, which is currently still being considered.

Assuming you agree that reducing carbon emissions is the way to go, and
not everyone does, the above tax system accomplishes that goal with the
least economic damage possible.  Phasing things in as you said is
smart.

>>Point 3:
>>	Lord deliver me from the Austin American Statesman and their
>>	$200 million electric trains.  If 10% of Austinites rode those
>
>     Give me $200 million worth of natural-gas buses.

Gee, i didn't realize anyone was listening. :-)
I suspect it could be done far cheaper than 200 mil with natural gas
buses, which is what differentiates them from the insane train idea.
-- 

curt@aixwiz.austin.ibm.com (Curt L. Finch) | AIX NFS/NIS Field Quality 
My views are unrelated to those of IBM     |        Austin, TX
"We have no rules around here. We're trying accomplish something."-Thomas Edison