[dunmalg]

$10/gal gasoline is not the answer, because it's a regressive tax that just prices the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder out of the transportation they need to get to work. It also adversely affects businesses that can't use public transit, like technical service people with tools and materials, and delivery drivers. The actual answer is to build a comprehensive mass transit system that makes driving unnecessary for most people. Trying to force people to use an inadequate public transit system by making the alternative unaffordable is just a shitty thing to do to people.

[29083011397778]

High gas prices are explicitly why I take transit and avoid driving. I have a car, but it works out to $10 CAD every day to drive to work - so I make the effort to get up a little earlier and take the train when I can.

"It's regressive and has an undue effect on the poor" and "It's moderately effective" are not mutually exclusive. That was a major reason public transit bounced back so fast in the Lower Mainland of BC, Canada - because driving is decidedly not cheap. Moreover, high gas prices are something I endorse, loudly and often, because it subsidises transit, and how much more expensive it makes the biggest (most dangerous to pedestrians) vehicles.

Still need to drive, and don't want to pay an arm and a leg? Skip the Silverado, get a hatchback or moderately-sized SUV or van. Need to haul your boat (or 40-foot camper instead of a tent)? Sounds like an expensive hobby - and anyone who's owned a boat can attest to that.

[ajuc]

Can't you put fuel as expense when you have a small business? Then only individuals would pay that tax, not businesses.

> The actual answer is to build a comprehensive mass transit system that makes driving unnecessary for most people

Car-centric design makes building such a system hard in many ways. You have to tackle both side of the equation at once - encourage public transport and discourage cars. Otherways you build it and nobody uses it.