Given almost zero support for this kind of thing in the past -- when gas went to $3 from $2 recently, consumption went up! -- I don't see why you'd think that this would work.
> With a fat gas tax that largely spared the bottom 50%, the economics
> and politics of transportation would change a lot.
What needs to change is the logistics, not the economics or politics.
> I realize it's an enormous problem, but you've got to start
> somewhere. Where would you start?
I'm not so sure how enormous it is, but I'd start by making public transportation more useful and more available. Three examples from my neck of the woods:
- Smaller busses
http://www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=9aa6076a
- Express service added to regular, coupled with technology to
improve operating performance: smart corridors, helpful signs (that
tell when the next bus is coming), signal priority, bypass lanes
http://www.actransit.org/riderinfo/sanpablo.wu
- Extensive connections through regional hubs
http://www.actransit.org/planning_focus/transbay_details.wu
The question arises: how to pay for it? Well, you just pay for it. No one asks how we're going to pay for highways, we just pay for them: we need them, so we pay for them.
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But then: I'm against all the little "death by a thousand cuts" taxes out there: decide what your priorities are, figure out how much it costs, and go forward. What's so hard about that? Don't answer.
/jordan