I was waiting for the 372 this morning and the stop is right at the entrance to a child care center (Kinder Kampus: how kute). Lots of minivans and SUVs pulling in, with small female drivers and even smaller children.
Not to get into the the whole “SUVs are bad and the people who drive them are worse” thing, but it occured to me that the only objection I have to anything like that is the inherent waste of resources. Drivers pay more in gas taxes, since they use more gas, but you get used to that. They may pay a ‘gas guzzler’ tax based on the fuel economy rating, but that’s buried in the sticker price and financed as part of the deal. It’s not like the buyer has to write a 4 figure check at purchase time — that would be something.
How about if the gas tax at the pump were assessed on size of the vehicle at each fill-up? It could be done with a scale but the day I load my minivan with furniture and buy gas would convince me that’s a bad idea. More equitable to assign ratings to the curb weights of vehicles and assess the tax that way. 0-2000 lbs, pays one rate, 2000-3000 lbs another, 3000-4000 another and so on.
There would have to be some way of making an accurate determination, of course, some kind of sealed transponder that could tell the pump what vehicle was getting fueled.
This has the advantage of reminding the customer of the cost of their choice each time they fill up, instead of letting it become a distant memory. Maybe some people would regard it as a mark of status to pay more for their gas than the next guy, who knows?
I’d like a fair system that rewards good choices and reminds people of their bad ones.