[Openstreetmap] UK Motorways 100% Complete
Rev Simon Rumble
simon at rumble.net
Sat Jan 7 16:59:26 GMT 2006
This one time, at band camp, Jo Walsh wrote:
> i find it hard to imagine that "the public" would really swallow the
> idea of a GPS-powered road usage metering system. there would be so
> many loopholes. and it's such a security/privacy mess.
The public needs to realise that we're ALL subsidising the road freight
industry. When engineers calculate the wear a vehicle places on the
road, they use a formula that goes weight X axle. So a 1 tonne family
car with 2 axles goes to 2 tonnes wear. A 25 tonne lorry with 6 axles,
as you can imagine, causes significantly more wear.
Lorries do not pay 72.5 times the road or fuel taxes, and they tend to
be on the road a hell of a lot more than the average family car.
It gets worse: rail freight, which is generally thought to be better
environmentally and socially, must charge VAT. Road freight doesn't.
Ignoring all the other distorting subsidies on both forms of freight,
there's a 12.5% subsidy right there.
These road freight subsidies are why Tesco has only a few warehouses
around the country, with everything being trucked dwn to them and then
trucked out to the stores. If they were paying anything near their
actual costs, I suspect they might end up having store rooms in their
supermarkets again.
--
Rev Simon Rumble <simon at rumble.net>
www.rumble.net
The Tourist Engineer
Nerds need vacations too.
http://engineer.openguides.org/
See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis,
and only enough blood to run one at a time.
- Robin Williams
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