Quote:
Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
I suppose there are two questions.
1) Have CAFE standard contributed at all to a reduction in gasoline consumption.
2) Are there less socially expensive ways to achieve a comparable reduction in gasoline consumption.
While 1 may be in dispute, 2 is not--there are far better ways, but they piss of fringe because she thinks it's the Man sticking it to the poor commuter.
BTW, CAFE does not make driving more expensive--precisely the opposite. It lowers the marginal cost of driving, which means greater consumption. The only expense it raises is the fixed cost of starting out, but as you know that has no effect on marginal cost of consumption.
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I'm actually OK with gas taxes, but there should be more/better public transportation. Fucking people who want to fucking live out in the middle of fucking nowhere have to pay the price, Man.
re: asphalt/cement -- it's not just an asphalt vs. cement (wtf is pavement?) issue. There's a whole infrastructure to roads, and tons of considerations. This is where "engineers" come in. Just as examples: maximum speed at which you anticipate vehicles will be traveling; weight of vehicles traveling; what kind of land is under the road; climate of area the road is in (does it freeze? does it get really hot? how quickly do temperatures change?). I think that a road that would hold up really well in Houston would not do so well in MN.
ETA damn you, Burger. Also they were saying on NPR last night that some states get more of the highway trust fund than they put in (big, unpopulated drive-thru states) (which means other states, like CA, get less than they put in).
