Comment 6335

By seancb (registered) - website | Posted April 12, 2007 at 13:35:00

I don't want to get into a big argument here, but single occupancy car travel is heavily subsidized -- more heavily than any other type of transportation. We all pay for that subsidization no matter what our usage of the road network is.

Yes, my bike travels on roads. However the damage the my bike does to a stretch of road in a lifetime is likely to be less than that done by an SUV in a year. On top of that, the distance travelled by me on my bike in my lifetime is less than that travelled by a motorist in his.

I know that everything I purchase travels (at least partly) by road. However I also know that retail prices include significant markups which go (in part) to the cost of transporting the goods.

The reason fares should not go up is because the situation is already horribly imbalanced. If public subsidization of all transportation services was first balanced out, THEN I would be all for a regular increase across the board (gas tax, transit fares, property tax on rail lines, etc) -- as long as it is applied equally. I think we'd find that if it WAS balanced out though, very few of us would be able to afford to drive.

I vote down for offensiveness and up for humour. I cast no votes based on my level of agreement.

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