🚀 go-pugleaf

In ca.politics phil@netcom.com (Phil Ronzone) said:
>
>Make mass transit pay ALL its cost via the ticket price, and remove the
>hidden taxes on cars and then see what happens.
>

You have to be kidding. What hidden taxes?

We subsidize the automobile  in  so many ways that other forms of
transportation  can't begin to compete.  And we have been doing it for
so long that it feels  so natural we don't give it a second thought.

For  instance, the taxes, licenses fees, and traffic  fines  col-
lected  on  automobiles don't even begin to cover  the  operating
costs of the DMV, the CHP and the traffic court system.

Gasoline taxes are suppose to cover the cost of building freeways, but
you will find that now a good portion of the money now comes from
general sales taxes. Also, through the use of right of eminent domain
much property has been gobbled up and removed from the tax rolls to
build those freeways.

There are others, but the biggest subsidy to the car is  the
closest  to  home  and, therefore, the least  obvious.  We  allow
people  to store their cars on public property, free  of  charge,
right  in front of our houses in plain sight. Imagine  that!  I'm
referring, of course, to free parking on the streets.

Remember, **NO** gasoline taxes are used for the purchase and main-
tenance  of city streets including the parking spaces,  but  that
expensive property is reserved almost exclusively for the automo-
bile.  I  can't park my elephant, ostrich, llama,  camel,  horse,
747, locomotive, bus or any other form of transportation there. I
can't drive on it or build a good strong shed to secure my  bicy-
cles  on it. And in  a good part of the state you can't even use what
used to be referred to as a sidewalk because of some, stinking hulk
sitting in the middle of it.

Now,  I'm not against people parking on the streets, heaven  for-
bid. It's just that they should pay for it. Something reasonable,
like $50 a month per car. What a boon to the city treasury.  What
a  boon  to the economy, all those property owners  building  new
driveways. What a boon to the balance-of-payments.

My  next door neighbors are a very nice family, but they  are  an
example  of  how blithely we encourage the auto. The city, a  few
years ago, allowed them to convert their garage into  a  bedroom,
which they needed for their growing family. That left them with a
single parking space in their driveway, but they have two cars
and umpteen relatives who are always visiting (in their cars,  of
course), consequently the street in front of my house looks  like
a used car lot. And their kids aren't even of driving age yet.

If  they had to pay $50 a month for each of those parking  spaces
on  the street, they and everyone else would be clamoring  for  a
better,  cheaper transportation system (for their  relatives,  of
course).

Think about it the next time you park in the street.

Howard Smith
howard.smith@spacebbs.com
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