On 15/02/07, Niall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mike Stevens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 11:31 AM > Subject: Re: [canals-list] Re: Proposed new car tax (OT) ON Line Petitions > > > > > About twenty years ago, one of my drinking friends had recently retired > as > > Chief Accountant for London Transport. He told me that the total ticket > > income for the tube didn't quite manage to pay for the printing, selling > > and > > checking of the tickets, let alone making a contribution to other > > operating > > costs and a totally free system would have cost the tax-payer less. I > > think > > there is a strong argument for public transport in cities to be free to > > the > > user and paid for out of taxation. > > > > Or they could charge what it actually costs...
Only if we do the same for roads. Make drivers pay not just for the cost of the road, but the cost maintaining it, policing it, lighting it and otherwise keeping it open. Then we should factor in costs for the road infrastructure caused by traffic damage, the Victorian sewers that collapse, the water pipes that crumble, the street architecture that's damaged by lorries trying to get along roads never made to accommodate them. Then there's the cost of the infrastructure of cities damaged by traffic. Houses where foundations have been made unstable, where walls have had to be pinned as a result of years of heavy traffic; small towns that have been virtually destroyed by traffic. Oh, and then there's the medical costs of traffic; surely they should be paid for too? Not just the people killed and maimed in accidents, but the thousands of kids suffering from asthma as a result of particulates in the atmosphere. And while we're on this tack, shouldn't drivers have to pay for the environment too, the long term damage that's being done to the ozone layer as a result of the overuse of the internal combustion engine? And shouldn't they just have to pay for making our lives a misery, the noise they cause, the stress they engender, the light pollution necessary to illuminate their nighttime journeys? etc etc etc Me, I think public transport might just nose in front on cost criteria. Steve [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
