Re:Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday in the U.S.
by mahyarm on Thursday January 24, 2013 @02:08PM
(#5111446)
It would probably be offloaded into yearly registration taxes that are based on the amount of damage your car would create on the road. A heavy truck costs more than a lightweight miata or motorbike.
For now, govt. wants to subsidize electric car's introduction to the market, so this tax deduction will probably stay for quite a while.
It also becomes an interesting conundrum with electric cars. In one sense their externalities in terms of environmental impact and geopolitical costs are generally much lower than conventional cars, but they are not paying for their use of public roads.
Of course that also means that if you limit your consideration to the road only, someone driving a lightweight Ferrari that gets 13MPG is really helping out with the cost of roads, even if they are also needlessly contributing a lot of carbon to the atmosphere.