Transportation Policy

You cannot design a policy without first understanding where we will be in 10-20 years. There are two shibboleths in our transportation system that need to be eliminated: Gas taxes and Mass Transit. Not only are they currently ineffective, inhibitive, and regressive as policies now they will be completely moot and vestigial to society in 20 years.

Right now most of our transportation funding is derived from gas taxes. Even without massive disruptions our aggregate vehicle usage patterns and improvements to vehicle gas efficiency have reduced the efficacy of this as a funding mechanism. This trend will rapidly accelerate over the next 20 years. Even if only 20% of the vehicle fleet becomes electric this is a massive disruption. Within 20 years it will be much more than 20%.

Beyond the efficacy of raising funds is the effect the gas tax has on the people and the economy. Energy is the lifeblood of the economy. It is the most regressive form of taxation in existence. Every aspect of a persons life is affected by the price of fuel. Home utilities, transportation costs, food costs, and all of the basic necessities of life are affected by the rise or fall of gas prices. The gas tax hits an average family dozens of times every month.

Lately the proceeds of this regressive atrocity have been going to mass transportation projects. This has turned into a giant wealth transfer from suburban/rural areas to the urban elite. Not only is this an immoral policy on its face it is pure stupidity for any Republican or conservative to allow to continue.

Taxation needs to be transitioned into a usage model. That means tolls. These tolls need to be ubiquitous and evenly distributed. The only areas that should have an unequal distribution of tolls are government seats and capitols. There needs to be a mandate that these areas and cities face at least double the concentration so they feel the demands of their policies.

The other major policy shift needs to be in the discouragement of mass transit and expansions thereof. Self driving vehicles are going to make mass transit completely useless. First you have to understand what the transition from human drivers to automated vehicles will do to traffic systems. There will be no street lights. There will be no street parking. There will be no stop signs. There will be no traffic jams. There will be no rush hour. You will get in your car at your house and you will travel 20-50 mph to your destination with no stops or pauses until you get to your destination. Some vehicles will move off to pick up the next passenger while personal vehicles will drive themselves to the nearest very large centralized parking garage with open capacity.

Humans cause all of the distortions in traffic that cause rush hour. Traffic moves like a sign wave because enough of us suck at driving to cause problems. We need stop signs and traffic lights to bring order. There will be none of this soon.

People will not tolerate centrally controlled train stations and scheduling issues associated with mass transit when the option to be picked up anywhere at anytime and direct fast transport to your destination is available without the overhead costs. A driverless Uber variant will be cheaper and more convenient. All investment into mass transit should be discouraged and frankly mocked. It is just plain stupid.

As we move into this new traffic system vehicle mileage will be easily tracked and we can allow a pay by mile option that ignores tolling. Eventually everyone will be paying by the mile and tolls will be unnecessary. This is the system we should be implementing now.