Transportation

Electric cars and road tax – a sticky wicket β›½

Electric cars and road tax – a sticky wicket β›½
Eventually the automobile is going to become electric. Even if climate change wasn’t a serious threat, the need for more urban pollution control and the flexibility of fuel that electricity represents and the precise control of torque and speed of electric motors means that’s where the future of the automobile industry resides.

But how on earth do you tax automobiles to cover the cost of running electric cars on these roads? It’s easy to tax gasoline, as it’s primarily a motor vehicle fuel. You can’t tax electricity as a fuel because it has many different uses.

You could tax roads by installing cameras and sensors to create toll roads but the thing that is not a practical option except on the biggest thoroughfares and would lead many roads to be untaxed, unfairly burdening commuters on select routes. People might shun the major highways to save money on tolls, causing additional traffic problems.

The other way would be a mile tax but that’s harder than some think. You could tax based on vehicle weight and miles traveled but that opens a series of problems. For one, if it’s a yearly tax collected after safety inspections, than the big tax bill at the end of the year would be be difficult for families to afford. They could do budget plans, but even those might challenging to administer, especially for folks without bank accounts. Without paying for the tax up front, people also might over use the roads and hit with a surprise tax bill.

Smart vehicles could talk to a satellite or cell phone tower to report their mileage but I would imagine that would lead to all kinds of privacy concerns. Would the government use GPS coordinates to secretly track people? Plus in outlying areas there might be infrequent and poor cell and satellite service, making it difficult to get regular reports on vehicle milage. It also would be impossible to track legacy electric vehicles without these sensors – and risk abuse when people unplugged or tampered with these sensors.

New York to ban sale of all gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035 – CBS News

New York to ban sale of all gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035 – CBS News

New York is aiming to ban the sale of all gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035. A bill amending the state's environmental conservation law was passed by the state's Senate and Assembly and signed by Governor Kathy Hochul last week.

Under the new law, 100% of in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks will have zero emissions by 2035. That means state agencies will work to develop affordable powering options for zero-emissions vehicles in all communities, improve sustainable transportation and support bicycle and pedestrian options.

Several agencies will work to create a zero-emissions vehicle market development strategy by 2023, so ensure more zero-emission cars are available in the state.

Delays Ahead

Today, the NYSDOT gets to try out messages they haven’t used in a year and a half:

Delays Ahead

Watch for Stopped Traffic

Prepare to Stop

Annual Cost to Own, Drive a New Vehicle Inches Closer to $10,000

Annual Cost to Own, Drive a New Vehicle Inches Closer to $10,000

Calculating out the exact dollar amount someone pays for transportation each year can be futile. Each person has their own situation, and some people pay more for track tires each year than others pay for 12 months of bus tickets. Still, there's something to be learned from general trends—like the fact that the overall average cost to own and operate a new car in 2021 was $9666.

Drunk Driving Fatalities Per 100k County Residents

Seneca County in the Finger Lakes has the highest fatality rate for drunk driver in New York State 2015. However, when you look at the five-year average, Hamilton and Lewis County edge it out for deadliest for drunk drivers. The 2011-15 average shows Yates County as third, and Seneca County for per capita fatalities in the state, due to drunk drivers. It seems like a lot of people get drunk at wineries and then go for a drive in the Finger Lakes Wine Country in New York.

Data Source: Data Fatalities by State. NHTSA. https://cdan.nhtsa.gov/SASStoredProcess/guest