"Steve Haywood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > 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. > I don't think so..... We already pay in car tax and fuel duty more then the upkeep of the road system. And don't forget that buses and coaches would also be liable to pay for the road and environment damage, as would trains for the noise and damage to buildings near the tracks. As for particulates the only reason that they have become a problem is the move to less polluting fuels and fitting cats on diesel vehicles, because of that the size of particulates has got smaller and thus become a problem.
Julian Who drives a diesel car that is almost CO2 neutral and produces almost no particulates. Bio-diesel is a wonderful thing.
