Transportation Secretary Cries Over Americans Driving Less Miles
Washington DC - High fuel prices seem to be adversely affecting American driving habits, according to a new report by the Federal Highway Administration. The report says Americans drove 30 billion less miles since last November. This is approximately a 1% decline over the same time period in previous years, but this is significant because total mileage usually rises one to two percent a year.
For April 2008 alone, mileage declined 1.8% over the same time last year. Tracked by region, the west - with its traditionally higher gas prices - declined the most with mileage falling by a whopping 2.8%.
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters says the lower miles driven have an adverse affect on the highway system because the government collects less tax on fuel. So driving less miles, which should be a good thing for the freeways, actually is a bad thing because less miles, means less fuel which in turn means less tax collected - clear as mud? We thought so. Currently the federal Highway Trust Fund received 18.4 cents per gallon from gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon from diesel fuel.
"We’re burning less fuel as energy costs change driving patterns, steer people toward more fuel efficient vehicles and encourage more to use transit. Which is exactly why we need a more effective funding source than the gas tax," Secretary Peters said.
Acting Federal Highway Administrator Jim Ray says the move towards greater fuel efficiency is great, but the highway system needs sustainable funding measures in place for the future. Hmmm, sounds like another tax coming up to me.
Gasoline prices in the Los Angeles area currently average around $4.50 a gallon with the most expensive places cresting $5.00+ a gallon.
To government their is merely one solution to all problems, tax id est coerce money out of people as much as one can, remove roughly 70% from the top in administrative costs and build roads no one asked for so it looks like they do something.
Isn't it time for some progress?
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Well, gasoline currently costs 6.78$ for galon in Europe's country Lithuania, where i live.
And i do know that gasoline prices are like 30% higher in Netherlands than in Lithuania.
What i would moan about, is PC component prices are up to 30% higher than in those countries not in EU.
Might be a good time to make the Transit Authority a federal office, and combine it with the Federal Highway Office.
Eh! Not all European have extensive public transportation or even friendly bicycle policies. Don't put us all in the same bag ok! :-)
Highly doubtful that will ever happen.
They will just stop raising the gas tax and start milking the new funding source
In my view, the rising oil prices is the best thing that ever happened to the planet. As a species, we will finally start getting smart and using alternative sources of energy.
Either way, I think the best solution is for cities to encourage density. People need to get away from the idea that they have to own a house in the 'burbs. The sprawl needs to stop and people need to more closer to where they work. Cities need to grow up not out. This means people have to travel a much shorter distance to work and it makes transit much more economical / efficient.
On the other side, I'm sad that the powers that be seem determined to keep us on the oil for as long as they can. All the major politicians in probably most of the countries are getting lobied left and right and the people's and planets best interest is just an afterthought, at least in my perspective. I'd like to see electric vehicles, where needed, that get their power from energy generated at the source of living. I'm down in Florida and I'm hard pressed to see any kind of solar power on anyone's property. It's such a sin as this state could be exporting clean power. There does seem to be a little bit more urgency to getting solar (and other alt energy) out the door, but it's still way too little in my view.
The thing about Canada is that the cold could be used to power large Sterling engines in that you use the heat differential with the heat below the ground vs above. It's a well proven technology that is under implemented.
I was thinking that if you could somehow make a huge array of small and inexpensive plastic ones, where one wouldn't be that powerful, but a whole bunch would add up, a 50 degree differential could actually be a significant factor. One idea would be to create a huge plastic sheet that would have the warm end of the unit underneath to take advantage of a greenhouse effect and have the colder top sticking out. That way, the air or gas would get warmed up at the bottom and then, as relatively warm air rises, travel up to the much cooler surface where it would get cold again and sink. Rocks could be strategically placed below the surface to retain some heat during darkness. If some kind of plastic moulding technology could be devised for it, I think it could be produced at little cost and generate at least enough power to light LED's and take care of one's lighting needs and probably a bit more.