Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Oh man, you drivers out there, you’re out on the road more and more every year* but the amount of gasoline and diesel ‘n stuff you buy isn’t keeping pace. So when people like you trade in their big old fuel-guzzling SUVs for Toyota Prius hybrids, the amount of gasoline they buy and the concomitant tax they pay to the Govmint goes down, let’s say by a half or two-thirds.
That’s good for Prius drivers but bad for the govmints. This chart from a big new report (free .pdf) out of California’s own RAND Corportation think tank ’splains it all. See? You people are out there clogging up the roads and tearing up the streets 100% more than you were in 1980, but you’re only buying 50% more fuel:
You drivers are paying more in tax but not as much as if you would be paying if you were taxed by the mile. (That makes you a deadbeat in the eyes of the Powers That Be.)
And things are only going to get “worse” when Tesla Motors’ mainstream Model S hits the streets in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, “late 2012,” right? Electric car drivers pay no gas tax at all, so how are we going to make sure that they pay their fair share to repave our streets ‘n stuff**?
The RANDian eggheads looked at these issues and, out of 15 ideas, decided that these three would be the most practicable:
What if the authorities put a GPS unit in your car or motorcycle? Not the regular kind of GPS receiver, the good kind, the ones that use differentials or whatever to pinpoint your whereabouts down to a couple yards on a 24-7 basis.
You don’t like that? Well how about a cell phone in your car next to the engine that would call the government on a regular basis to rat out how miles you’ve driven the past week?
You don’t like that neither? Well how about a system that ID’s your car when you buy gas and then computes your Miles Driven by looking at your particular model’s EPA rating?
And let’s say this all gets implemented in five years.
Or instead, our electeds could simply raise gas taxes a bit, but that’s not something that they like talking about doing.
Of course they could make this new VMT proposal “revenue neutral” by getting rid of or lowering per-gallon fuel taxes that you pay today. Once a system like this is in place, taxes would correlate more directly with miles driven – it’s up to you if you like that or not.
Welcome to The Future.
Speaking of 1980:
My uncle has a country place
That no one knows about.
He says it used to be a farm
Before the Motor Law.
And on Sundays I elude the Eyes,
And hop the Turbine Freight
To far outside the Wire
Where my white-haired uncle waits.
See how this libertarian, Canadian Power Rock Trio story ends after the jump.
*Not so much this past year or two, but you’ll be out there in force again soon enough.
**And maybe that’s the way it should be. I know all the arguments you’re thinking about - this is a political question, of course.
(more…)
Tags: 2015, 3g, 4g, Betty Serian, Board of Equalization, boe, california, call, Corp, Corporation, diesel, differential, don't snitch, Franchise Tax Board, ftb, fuel, gas, gasloine, GPS, II, Implementable Strategies, Implementable Strategies for Shifting to Direct Usage-Based Charges for Transportation Funding, in, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Lee Munnich, Liisa Ecola, Lisa Ecola, Martin Wachs, Max Donath, motor, motor law, Motor Vehicle Administration, moving pictures, MVA, OBD, Paul Sorensen, pdf, phone, prius, privacy, Radio Frequency Identification, raise, RAND, red barchetta, rfid, rush, San Francisco, snitch, spy, spying, stations, study, suv, taxes, telephone, think tank, TIMA, toyota, Truth in Mileage Act, Units, Vehicle Miles of Travel, Vehicle-Miles-Traveled, Vehicle-Miles-Travelled, vmt
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Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
Yes. Mayor Gavin Newsom’s official vehicle (or one of the official vehicles, anyway) has an engine with a larger displacement and more power than those in the 40-foot-long Culturebuses that used to roam the City.
Here’s the famous SUV, recently seen parked in a bike lane near Golden Gate Park. Note the T.V. antenna (maybe it’s used for other things, but fundamentally, it’s a TV antenna) on top:
And here’s one of the huge CultureBuses, from a time before the whole program got cancelled:
Does the mayor of San Jose, a nearby town with (unlike S.F.) more than a million people, have a “Mobile Command Vehicle” too? Mmmm.
Oh well.
Tags: 2007, 2008, 2009, 3 tons, 40 feet, 5.9, 6.0, biodiesel, car, Chevrolet, chevy, command, culture bus, cultureBus, diesel, displacement, engine, gavin newsom, hybrid, liter, litre, Mayor, mobile, orion, suv, tahoe, two-mode, vehicle, vii
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Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
An immaculate black FJ-40 Toyota Land Cruiser is the primary reason this Matrix Morpheus-looking dude just won SF HoTY ‘09.
Just look at the details:
As seen on Fell Street. Click to expand.
Aging FJ-40 model (豊田 ランドクルーザー, Toyoda Rando-Kurūzā). Of course! Dude could buy a much newer Bland Cruiser (2009 price = $50k-something) instead of this (possibly amazingly expensive) torture box, but where’s the fun in that?
Alaska license plate: SURF. Of course! Our 50th state is the next frontier of surfing, don’t you know.
Right Hand Drive (RHD). Of course! Dude’s driving on the wrong side of the vehicle. Why? Why not?
Snorkel. Of course! Can you see the urban snorkel air intake standing up on the left side? Very handy when our streets are under five feet of water. Snorkle! Snorkle! Snorkle!
Original diesel engine. Of course! A Chevy small block would just drop right in, but where’s the fun in that?
No doors. Of course! How can people see your stylish shoes and socks with doors blocking the view?
The hat and the fogglasses (on a very dark summer day) put him over the top. Nobody could possibly best this fellow, that’s why he’s San Francisco’s Hipster of the Year, 2009.
Tags: $40, 09, 2009, alaska, diesel, fell, fj-40, fj40, hipster, hoty, land cruiser, license plate, right hand drive, San Francisco, series, snorkel, street, surf, toyota, year, yellow
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Monday, December 29th, 2008
It’s game over man, game over! Remember Costco (not Cosco, that’s wholly different), the place where you can stock up on heavily discounted sugary, corn syrup-free Mexican Coke? Well brace yourself, because now you can get Zegna shirts for just $159.99 and Diesel Jeans for just $117.99 at America’s favorite big box store. Does that sound cheap to you? It should.
When you are used to competing with Gucci, Fendi, Prada, Versace, and Armani, it must be tough to have your prized products heavily discounted and left sitting atop wooden pallets with nothing but a cyclone fence and a cold bare floor to keep them separate from those, those people lining up for $1.50 Polish sausages.
Click to expand:
San Francisco definitely has an ambivalent attitude towards the sometimes-hated and sometimes-loved Costco in the SOMA. But one thing’s for sure – our local Secret Millionaire and fashion trend-setter Gurbaksh “G” Chahal won’t be filling his closet (BAM!) with these brands anytime soon.
Sic transit gloria.
Sub sodium natrium lux lucis, sic transit gloria mundi.
Tags: costco, diesel, discount, Ermenegildo, jeans, San Francisco, shirts, Zegna
Posted in fashion | 5 Comments »
Friday, September 19th, 2008
Here’s what you’ll see tooling around San Francisco’s Mission District these days - an aging Mercedes Benz 300 SD sedan that’s been converted by Oakland’s Veg Rev to run on vegetable oil in a process called “vehicle fuel reassignment.”
So instead of inky diesel soot covering the back of this OM617 W126, we see vegetable oil. See the conversion process courtesy of this nifty video. (But just ignore a laughable MTV-style intro from the abysmal Current TV network.) The car shown can’t accelerate quickly, but in many ways is superior to (and costs about $115,000 less than) the quick, all-electric Tesla Roadster.
Of course the best way to spread the word about veggie power is to fashion a bumper sticker to make Toyota Prius owners feel bad:
Click to enlarge.
“YOUR NEW HYBRID USES GAS – HA!”
From Teh Mission with love…
Tags: 2CHJ531, 300, 300sd, benz, california, conversion, diesel, gas, gasoline, ha, hybrid, Mercedes, Oakland, oil, San Francisco, sd, veg rev, vegetable, Your New Hybrid Uses Gas, Your New Hybrid Uses Gas - Ha
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Friday, July 25th, 2008
Is this what you want to encounter on the streets of San Francisco - a mobile billboard from Do It Outdoors? You see, S.F. is having a tussle over whether we should have new fixed billboards in town, but apparently there’s nothing stopping new mobile billboards from travelling all over the place.
Rest assured, this trucking company is saying, “We Do It Green.” [Please note yet another delightful double entendre from Do It Outdoors - what a playful corporation!]. Brace yourself for more information about carbon offsets. That means the more they drive the better things get, just as the more water we import from the South Pacific, the better off we are, cause like Fiji Water is carbon negative or something.
From Vegas with love, on Hayes Street. Click to expand:
There’s lots to ponder as you drive around sipping your MGD Light – like how getting your fossil fuel hydrocarbons from coal really sucks, but petroleum, well petroleum that powers trucks, that must be A-OK.
Is that what they call greenwashing?
The mind boggles….
Tags: ads, ban, billboards, california, David Pridgen, diesel, do it outdoors, doitoutdoors, fiji, fiji green, fijigreen, green, hayes, II, mobile, San Francisco, street, trucks, we do it green
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Monday, June 16th, 2008
It seems Volkswagen is making progress with fuel cell technology. VW dropped by a few places in the bay area this past week to show off their latest effort in the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. VW just happens to be introducing their “Tiguan” (tiger plus iguana, in German) crossover vehicle soon, so why not put this experimental propulsion technology in the latest platform?
CNET was there at the W Hotel and they took some photos. Wired also took some shots, plus they have a nice rundown on the whole affair.
This Tiguan uses hydrogen fuel cell technology, which differs from what BMW has done with hydrogen so far. BMW’s approach is to just modify a typical internal combustion engine so that it will accept either gasoline or hydrogen. Comedian Jay Leno explains. But this method comes with its downsides.
VW was also pleased to show off the new fifty-state-legal Jetta TDI diesel. You can’t hardly tell it’s a diesel. Look to see lots of these TDI cars on the streets of San Francisco soon. It seems everyone who owns a TDI just raves about this high-MPG technology.
Invizabul driver in the SOMA. This new 50-state-legal Jetta has plenty of power and very high MPG - perhaps you’d prefer this VW over the slightly larger and more expensive Toyota Prius hybrid?
And let’s not forget about the Jetta TDI Cup Race, which shows the young’uns that diesel engines have come a long way since the bad old days. It’s the first clean diesel racing series evah.
A speedy TDI at the yummy XYZ restaurant in San Francisco.
VW says that their hydrogen fuel cell technology is seven to ten years away from being available. The sooner the better.
Tags: America, ballard, california, CEO, clean, compressed, crossover, diesel, electric, emissions, EPA, fuel cell, gas, gasoline, hy, HY motion, hydrogen, HyMotion, iguana, ion, lithium, motion, mpg, San Francisco, san jose, stack, Stefan Jacoby, tdi, tiger, tiguan, volkswagen, volkswagon, VW
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