Theft at the Public Till
downtown parking for millions of commuters, dispose of millions of junked cars, tires, and batteries, cover higher health-care costs associated with the breathing of gasoline fumes, deal with fuel wastage and time lost in traffic jams, cope with losses of life and human capacity in traffic accidents, pay courts and judges to handle personal injury lawsuits, pay auto insurance pre- miums and bear the uncountable costs of living in an auto-centered world. Most Americans live in sprawling automobile suburbs. As commuting distance increases, and speeds drop below twenty miles per hour, and the freeways back up, life on wheels becomes increasingly intolerable and people go mad with ennui. What is wrong with this auto-centered suburban world? It devours vast amounts of rural land, including some of the best farmland. It squanders energy. It wastes people’s time, condemning them to solitary imprisonment in their cars for hours each day. By failing to provide decent public places that bring people into casual face-to-face contact, it is by nature homogenizing and intolerant of diversity, both economic and social, and cannot provide the odd little corners for people with odd little lives neces- sary to keep all of us sane. The actual dollar costs add up: General tax subsidies to build roads: Police and safety services: Highway administration: Interest and debt ser- vice: Loss of taxes from free parking: Military presence in Persian Gulf Strategic petroleum reserve: Costs of traffic congestion: Air pollution and health costs: Casualty insurance premiums $ 21 billion $ 6 billion $ 5 billion $ 5 billion $ 21 billion $ 25 billion $ 1 billion $100 billion $ 9 billion $ 99 billion Millions who pay the $2.25-per-gallon premium through property, sales, and income taxes and higher consumer prices do not even drive -- the elderly, city folk who rely on mass transit, and the poor. We used to have railroads and trolleys before the highwaymen dominated Americans’ choice of travel. Government policy made railways build and pay taxes on their own pathways while sparing the rails’ competitors from such burdens. Traveling by road seemed cheaper with good reason. To have a system in which those who benefit shift the costs to those who do not is not merely unfair; it un- derstates the costs that car users make society pay. And charging motorists
77
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online