🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3a0ceg$7fs@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>, ben@utig.ig.utexas.edu wrote:

>I thought license plates served as identifying badges for cars.  Silly me.
>You mean to tell me the $65 or whatever a license plate costs is how our
>roads are funded?  

Of course license plates are identifying badges, but you don't think it
costs $65 to stamp out a couple of pieces of sheet metal, or even better,
print up a little 3"x4" paper sticker, do you?  Vehicle registration is a
revenue stream.  It may not pay for *all* road construction (and I never
said it paid for all of it), but it does pay for some of it.  My basic
point remains: bikers don't pay as much toward road construction as
motorists.  I'll cede Steve Swinnea's point that they do pay toward it
through other taxes, but not as much as motorists.

>In order to do this I would prefer gasoline taxes,
>which would tax every vehicle according to the amount of road damage
>it does: more for larger vehicles, etc.  It would also encourage
>conservation.

We've already got a gasoline tax that does exactly this.  Bikers don't pay
that either, but I wouldn't expect them to pay that.

>Try not driving in the UT area during rush hour.

My aren't you Mr. Arrogant!  I work for UT; I drive down here because
that's how I get to work (walking and biking are out of the question
because I live too far away).  And since my work hours is pretty much the
same as everyone else's, I hit the rush hours just like everyone else.

>Try letting pedestrians and cyclists have the right of way on campus.  

Peds do have right of way on campus and I don't contest them for it.  I
used to be a student down there, so I know what it's like.  But as it has
already been pointed out here, bikers have the same rights as motorists. 
"The same" does not mean "more".  Bikers don't have any more ROW than
motorists, even on campus.  If I'm legally entitled to the ROW over a
biker, I'll take it with no more hesitation than I would have in taking it
from another motorist.  And the biker is obligated by law to yield if I
have the ROW, just as a motorist is.  I'll also yield if the biker has
ROW.  But as long as the law says that bikers have the *same* rights as
motorists, don't preach to me about giving them more than their due.

Bikers wouldn't be a problem on campus anyway if they'd just obey the
traffic laws (most of them don't).  The speed limit on campus is 15 mph,
about bike speed.  Bikers don't hold up traffic when everyone is required
to go as slow as they do.

>I would have no objection 
>to closing the campus to motorized vehicles from 7-6.

This is easy for you to say.  Unless your signature is mistaken or somehow
misleading, you work for the Institute for Geophysics.  That's not even on
campus.  It probably wouldn't inconvenience you at all if campus was
closed from 7-6.  It sure would inconvenience all of us who work down here
and park down here.  UT doesn't have enough parking space as it is.  Your
suggestion would eliminate even more of it.

And besides, I wasn't talking about driving on the campus itself; I meant
driving in the public streets surrounding the campus.  There are a lot of
students who live in the areas immediatelly surrounding campus, and many
of them bike to class.  Most of the streets around campus are narrow and
the speed limit is generally 30 - 35, quite a bit faster than a bike. 
Bikers do hold up traffic on these streets.  I speak from experience, I've
been caught behind them too many times before.

                                ++Don Nash

Internet: D.Nash@utexas.edu     The University of Texas System
THEnet:   THENIC::DON           Office of Telcommunication Services