Cities restricting use of polluting cars

[redpoint5]

How are these fees collected? I imagine it is like any other toll is collected, by waiting in a line at a toll collection booth while you look for the change required to simply move from one side of a line to another. This is ludicrously inefficient, and I find it odd that people on an efficiency website would laud this absurdity. How many MPGs does a parked car get? Is it efficient to force every car to a stop, only to accelerate again? How much of the fee goes to good use, and how much is consumed in the collection and administration of the program? Taking tiny portions of everyones time on a continual basis collectively wastes hundreds of thousands of hours that could be used for other purposes. This can't possibly end up being a net benefit to humanity.

That said, providing incentives or disincentives to modify behavior can achieve goals when properly crafted. A fee should be collected as infrequently as possible, or as seamlessly. The best way I can think to penalize gas guzzling is to tax purchased fuel at the pump. Well, I imagine this was among the first artificial influences on the consumption of fuel to be implemented.

Is it crazy to attempt to reduce pollution or resource consumption? Absolutely not, but efficiency must be kept in mind when thinking about how to encourage efficiency.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

How are these fees collected? I imagine it is like any other toll is collected, by waiting in a line at a toll collection booth

In London and in Germany (for trucks) it's done electronically and with camera control (automated licence plate reading).

Is it efficient to force every car to a stop, only to accelerate again?

Not exactly.
Toll booths are an environmental disaster, especially on the motorway.

Same with having to stop and buy a vignette to be allowed on the motorways (Switzerland, Austria, much of Eastern Europe, ...)

How much of the fee goes to good use,

In case of the London congestion charge, reports have it that it has brought the London government preciously little. So the area got expanded.

and how much is consumed in the collection and administration of the program?

In case of the London CC, the administrative overhead was/is reported to be massive.

The best way I can think to penalize gas guzzling is to tax purchased fuel at the pump.

Exactly.
You'd pay more - and it'd be a lot more if all vehicle related taxes are put into the fuel price - for driving an inefficient vehicle, and even more for driving inefficiently.

[Frank Lee]

Bill Ford Warns The World Should Cut Down On Driving

Bill Ford talks about impending congestion crisis.

Thanks breeders- not.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Bill Ford Warns The World Should Cut Down On Driving

Bill Ford talks about impending congestion crisis.

Thanks breeders- not.

It's really easy to become sanctimonious when you are wealthy, and exponentially so when your wealth is the result of being heir to a family fortune...

[Frank Lee]

Wealth makes him wrong? I think not.

Congestion on that scale scares me, although it doesn't seem to bother millions of others.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Wealth makes him wrong? I think not.

Congestion on that scale scares me, although it doesn't seem to bother millions of others.

I didn't say that wealth made him wrong. I said that wealth (and fame as well) tends to make people sanctimonious.

Think of it as a paraphrase of Lord Acton's comment that "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

If you like wealthy, sanctimonious people, you would love Mayor Bloomberg, ruler of the Nanny State, who should be crowned King of Sanctimonious Politicians. (BTW, congestion doesn't seem to bother him any...)

[Frank Lee]

Of course not. Politicians love growth- more subjects = more to lord over, and more money to take.

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Bill Ford Warns The World Should Cut Down On Driving

Bill Ford talks about impending congestion crisis.

Thanks breeders- not.

Bill Ford is the douchebag that pushed ford into the Expedition Excursion market while calling hybrids an expensive 'nitch' that will always lose money. They drove FOMOCO into near bankruptcy until Alan Mulally took over. He has zero credibility.