Wojtek Sokolowski
> A Social Strike is coming. Spread the word.
I think it is yet another half-baked idea of the yesteryear era protestors. Fare strikes affect only the budget of mass transit agencies, which are already low on the political totem pole, and will likely to result in further reductions of these valuable services. The automobile-highway construction complex - by far the major beneficiary of this country's transportation policies - will not be affected, and laughing all the way to the bank.
A smarter way is to target politicos who set the priorities of transportation budgets and to demand that the cost of driving (road construction, safety enforcement, pollution abatement, cost of parking, etc.) is borne exclusively by drivers (e.g. in the form of gasoline tax) rather than by the general population. The soon to be $3+/gallon gas price is a step in the right direction, but that still needs to be topped with a tax.
Wojtek
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Perhaps I'm missing something, but I think this is a terrible idea. Schwarzenegger has advocated precisely such a plan here in the California. In this state, working people use the freeways, not Daddy Warbucks types in their stretch limos. Rich people can afford a $2.5 million condo near their office in downtown San Diego, while the working stiffs have to buy crackerbox homes in distant suburbs, because that is all they can afford, and commute 70 miles each way every day. Implementing an onerous use tax that rich people can easily avoid, and the burdens of which the right will be able to profitably exploit, sounds like a bad idea to me. And gas is already over $3.00 a gallon in Southern California: I paid $3.05 this morning.