From: BillK (bill@wkidston.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Sun Feb 09 2003 - 09:07:42 MST
Sat Feb 08, 2003 05:23 pm Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
> ### This is such a strong argument against gas taxes: taxing gas is
> exchanging *human lives* for a pile of cash at the IRS.
But..... the USA traffic deaths are still worse than many countries with
mostly smaller cars and higher gas taxes.
The excellent site http://www.scienceservingsociety.com/default.htm
that Edwin Evans referred us to is packed with useful data. They have an
article published in the SF Examiner 9th Dec 2002 by Leonard Evans
entitled 'We need higher taxes on gas' which eloquently sets out the
case.
Quote:
'While there is near universal agreement in the technical community that
making vehicles lighter increases fatalities, there is no corresponding
agreement that increasing the fuel economy of vehicles reduces the total
amount of fuel consumed in the nation. Making a vehicle more
fuel-economic reduces the cost of travelling each mile. This encourages
more driving, less car-pooling and less use of alternative
transportation modes. In the long run, it makes longer commuting trips
more acceptable.
Although there is no consensus on whether making vehicles more
fuel-economic increases or decreases the total amount of fuel the nation
uses, there is universal agreement among economists that increasing the
cost of a commodity reduces its consumption.'
end Quote.
Leonard Evans is the same person that published the previous report that
said that big cars provide better driver protection in crashes. He
appears to have come to the conclusion that increased death rates in
spite of larger cars must mean that Americans are 'bad' drivers. Other
articles show that young males with the fastest reactions have the
highest death rate. So it is not technical skills at driving that are
the problem - it is the way they are driving that is the problem.
I suspect that Newton's Laws of Motion have an affect as well. If your
SUV has a much greater mass then it will tend to keep going in the
direction of motion, especially at higher speeds. i.e. it is not as
steerable as a smaller, lighter car.
The countries with the lowest traffic death rates appear to have the
strongest enforcement of traffic laws and drink-driving laws.
So, there seems to be two options for the future that Americans have to
face up to:
1) Higher gas prices are the only way to reduce consumption and reduce
the power of the oilfield-owning states.
2) The freedom to drive just as you please on the roads must be
restricted in order to save lives.
BillK
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