Will peak oil and global warming completely change the priorities for transport investment? Without the revenue from the petrol tax how should transport be funded? Have your say.
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
Of course, transport users should be charged on the same basis that other commodoties are charged, user pays. That it is a tax is because the govt owns and provides the service.
Of course, the "beauty" of the petrol tax is that, better than many other taxes, it appears to quite closely match actual usage and so does not cause the same imbalances that other taxes sometimes create. This IS breaking down a bit with the rate not being increased to match road costs partially due to the ongoing improvements in vehicle efficiency (i.e. cars/trucks are getting better and better milage and so "wearing out more roads per litre").
The leap in efficiency of hybrids means these cars do would not cover their share of road use even if the govt did not take a cut of the petrol tax. Overseas they are considering various measures to deal with this including extra taxes on hybribs (which is ironic since most hybrids are made affordible due to signifincant tax breaks).
The bigger issue is the use of petrol tax for non-roading purposes. You outline this on your web site but expenditure on public transport subsidies (especially pasenger rail) is one of the biggest diversions.
Into the future, I think electronic tolling is a possibility (really a more direct "user pays"). They have the GPS form in Germany for trucking and, while it does work. it also has very serious privacy issues that are likely to hold it up for some time. The most interesting part of toll though will be how public transport, ACC and other services currently supported by the petrol tax are to be funded into the future.
Finally, transport is a very political issue and so the decisions made are not likely to be based on logic or fairness.
1 comment:
Of course, transport users should be charged on the same basis that other commodoties are charged, user pays. That it is a tax is because the govt owns and provides the service.
Of course, the "beauty" of the petrol tax is that, better than many other taxes, it appears to quite closely match actual usage and so does not cause the same imbalances that other taxes sometimes create. This IS breaking down a bit with the rate not being increased to match road costs partially due to the ongoing improvements in vehicle efficiency (i.e. cars/trucks are getting better and better milage and so "wearing out more roads per litre").
The leap in efficiency of hybrids means these cars do would not cover their share of road use even if the govt did not take a cut of the petrol tax. Overseas they are considering various measures to deal with this including extra taxes on hybribs (which is ironic since most hybrids are made affordible due to signifincant tax breaks).
The bigger issue is the use of petrol tax for non-roading purposes. You outline this on your web site but expenditure on public transport subsidies (especially pasenger rail) is one of the biggest diversions.
Into the future, I think electronic tolling is a possibility (really a more direct "user pays"). They have the GPS form in Germany for trucking and, while it does work. it also has very serious privacy issues that are likely to hold it up for some time. The most interesting part of toll though will be how public transport, ACC and other services currently supported by the petrol tax are to be funded into the future.
Finally, transport is a very political issue and so the decisions made are not likely to be based on logic or fairness.
Johnsonville Commuter
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