Gas Tax

Shell Gas Station in Hiroshima, Japan. Public domain by Frank Gualtieri, God rest his soul

Thank you Lord, for helping me clean house of hypocrisy! I've realized a hole in my thinking (willful or otherwise) regarding taxation, and am seeking to partially address it here:

One of the fundamental dilemmas of government is that you need to pay for government services. Not everybody wants these services, and not everybody believes in them. In a way, to enact laws and taxes is to steal from those who would never spend their money that way. But stuff does still need to get built.

But I do see one way out of this moral quandary: what if you provide for certain less crucial (but still highly beneficial) government services such as freeway construction with usage taxes? Now there are two traditional ways to tax a freeway: a toll and a gas tax.

A toll involves setting up certain payment stations where in order to use that section of the road, you must pay the fee. Then you may drive a certain distance on it. The trouble with tolls is unless they are equitably applied across the whole landscape (something that will never happen - politicians love to make deals with each other) they will create distortions in traffic patterns as people seek to avoid (as always) paying the tax.

A gas tax involves adding a little bit to the cost of fuel to pay for the roadway that's been built and is being maintained. You pay it to the exact degree that you use it, and the only avoidance method is purchasing more fuel-efficient vehicles, which we currently give tax deductions for anyways and is a fundamentally beneficial behavior. And before you ask, a gas tax high enough could pay for the entire road system, though it should ONLY be used to pay for the road system or any expenses related to gas consumption and cars, such as maintenance of any publcily-owned oil pipelines (do they exist?) and proper enforcement of various regulations and laws (such as State Patrol speeding cops) related to the two.

These roads have to be paid for one way or another, and paying for it with a gas tax puts the cost ONLY on those who use the roads and only to the degree to which they use them. This seems to be very fair and equitable, and avoids stealing from anyone. It also puts the cost of maintaining a freeway grid squarely on those who use it, with those who benefit the most paying the most.

Now on the flip side, there's a less traditional method as well: Car GPS tags, but the enforcment cost would be huge and it might not be difficult to mess with them. It would give a more accurate measure then gas consumption for sure, but the cost of building the national surveillance system required for such a thing is tremendous and enforcing such a thing on a population that would surely try to avoid it with transceivers that are themselves very technologically complicated and thus, breakable, is tremendous. Still, it is something to think about, and I guess electrocution hazard could keep some people from messing around.

Railbanking

Union Pacific Rail Trail, Summit County, UT. Public domain, by GreenGlass1972

According to the Rails-to-Trails conservancy, 1500 former railroads have been transformed (1250 since they started up) in to trails for bicycles and pedestrians. Western Washington is a classic example of places that have been transformed by Rails-To-Trails

Soon to be included in the 1500 Rail-Trails is the former loop around the Lake, one of the oldest railroads in King County, just shut down in the past two years, that comprised the railroad backbone for the Eastside of Seattle, shutdown a local business that was becoming an important part of their culture (The Spirit of Washington dinner train) and makes bypassing Seattle on rail nearly impossible for most routes (as the NP Railway goes too far South), negatively affecting industry to the North and South. Also included were the railways running to Issaquah, despite the fact that there is still a reasonable amount of industry there, and all the railroads running to the rich farming regions of the Snoqualmie Valley and the far east of King County, except for a few miles of shot-haul railroad between two towns used for entertaining tourists...

Canadian National Railway in the Chicago Suburbs recently acquired a series of rail corridors with the intention of creating a belt line to divert traffic around Chicago. As usual, they also cried environmentalism. State Senator Holmes (D-Aurora) called upon Obama to make staffing decisions "that will protect communities from the unnecessary safety and economic concerns that can be caused by railroad expansion." Nowhere in this reasoning was the economic benefits that railroad expansion can bring, that was nowhere addressed. Nor, for that matter, was the "unneccesary" backed up with good solid reasoning, and I know exactly how shaky their understanding is first hand.

A little under a year ago, I took an AMTRAK train from Atlanta, GA to Seattle, WA, along three rail lines: The Crescent to DC, the Capitol Limited to Chicago, and finally, the Empire Builder to Seattle. When anywhere near Chicago or the Great Lakes, the train would be stopped for an hour at a time waiting for freight trains to pass it. (And to think this was during a recession, when there is less cargo to carry...) As for "safety," how can putting that many large metal objects travelling at 60 MPH on the same piece of rail be safe? And as for "environment," train collisions can leak toxic chemicals all over the landscape, and freight traffic being more expensive on rail leads to more of it on the roads in the form of trucking. The situation is clear, they want to interfere with the free rights of a railroad company to operate in order to shift their burden environmentally and safety-wise to other communities, and increase it. They want to beg their neighbors for $6 to avoid paying $5 themselves!

And as for economic benefits - increased cargo capacity and cheaper freight transportation, not too much higher rail speed will benefit industries of every kind set up along the tracks, creating good, solid work for Americans of every educational level from high school dropout (the assembly line) to PhD Engineer (advanced design work) and consulting services of every kind. Every aspect of society will benefit from more manufacturing. And for the environment, more track and more ease of use makes for easier high-speed and passenger service, possibly, if regulations become light enough, even with private money.

Update 3/15/2010: This New York Times Editorial about Acela is very informative regarding the state and growth restraints of rail service in America, and especially along the Northeast Corridor. It's also a short read.

Update 10/15/2010: This local story from Ballard, Seattle, WA is about a successful shortline railroad that has seen its traffic increase signficiantly in the last couple years and is expanding its business. Excerpt:

"Traffic on the Ballard Terminal's railroads was up 47 percent in 2007 and Cole predicts 2008 will be even better. This is due in large part to businesses reassessing the cost benefit of using rail for their transportation needs. According to Cole, each rail car can carry 100 tons while an 18-wheel truck can only carry 25 tons. Trains are more efficient as a freight engine can move one ton 400 miles on one gallon of diesel fuel while a truck can only move the same weight only 75 miles."

It is worth noting that trains can also be electrified, a technology that reached its zenith in the 1930's and has since been in decline. This article speaks in more detail about railroad electrification and why it never materialized to the degree that it was originally envisioned. Cheap electric costs through relatively non-polluting sources such as nuclear, geothermal and wind could once again make railroad electrification an attractive option combined with rising gasoline costs.

Photobucket. Image of Ballard Terminal Railroad on Shilshole Avenue.

Making Keynesianism Work

The Hoover Dam, whose hydrolectric power arguably built Southern California and whose Irrigation makes fruitful much of the Southwest.

Source: National Parks Service and NARA, public domain.

DC Beltway, courtesy of Wikimedia user Jumpy, public domain.

Perfect example of a worthy, but expensive, Keynesian type construction project.

Obama's "Keynesian" stimulus has been a failure. To see exactly how much of a failure, let us just consider Obama's own statement that "there will be no easy fix" from a few months ago. Keynesian stimulus, is, by it's very definition, an easy fix. It is about "stimluating" the sagging demand instantaneously to put the economy back on level. If long-term is what we were concerned about, we'd have nothing to be concerned about, as currency movements and demand changes, like those we saw last year, cannot destroy the economy permaneantly as prices do (slowly) adjust. Thus, the goal was not met.

When you also consider the cost to the "businesses" we were trying to save through this stimulus, the picture is even bleaker, as they will end up paying nearly every cent towards the debt that was used to give them this "easy fix," and to no positive result. Still, it is not entirely Obama's fault, but the fault of a legislative system whose lengthy regulatory structure and impossible land purchasing requirements do not currently make Keynesian stimulus very hard.

When Eisenhower was facing a severe recession in 1952, he built the Interstate Freeway from city to city to clarify routes, shorten travel, increase capacity and further the city radius of all of America's metropoli. Though the bill was large (trillions in todays dollars,) the vast improvements to every kind of productivity and prosperity paid for the freeway many times over. In between the increased spending relieving the death pressure of America's industrialists and the promise of future returns that these larger cities promised for those same businesses and others, this stimulus worked. Of course, Eisenhower was both extremely popular and extremely capable at arm-wrestling what he wanted out of congress and pretty much anyone else, which is part of why this worked. Also part of how he got schools desegregated.

Similarly, in the 30's Hitler brought Germany out of its depression using the Audobohn and millitary and industrial economic stimulus. Of course, Hitler was a dictator. And FDR provided some relief (though not quite as effective) with his many WPA projects, including the triborough bridge in NYC and the very last subway tunnels to be built in New York, and the hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest, Southwest and Tennessee River areas. Of course, FDR made himself a dictator.

One of the common themes of all these projects is that they promised future returns on the investment today to back the current consumption. Otherwise, business sees that, while they have more customers today, they are the skeleton on the banquet table, as tomorrow they will be taxed in full the bill for their prosperity today. What is there response? Well, continue operating today, and plan to shut down (partially or completely) before tomorrow. Or at the very least don't expand production. Best of both worlds and one of the easiest, cheapest shrewd maneuvers anyone can pull off. This previous article discusses the flaws in greater detail.

Only trouble is, we couldn't build effective projects as the planning would take too long and the regulatory and buying process too complex for the money to be spent when it is needed. As a result, we had to build "shovel ready" bridges to cheap easy to buy wilderness. This is a very common problem, a predictable problem, and one that can be easily solved ahead of time, but only ahead of time.

See, you make a list, a list of all the various projects that should be built in the near future but are too expensive to be built when times are good, like the Alaskan Way Viaduct Tunnel in Seattle, the Second Avenue Subway Line in New York, some new freight rail to handle additional capacity in Chicago, and maybe some new mountain passes or brand new interstates to link more of the countryside in to the metropoli.

First, you get all permits cleared years ahead of time. Have the town hall meetings, have the local voice, but do it while times are still good in the summer of comfort long before the decisions have to be made. Then, if it passes, you buy the land that the project requires, rent it out temporarilly until construction begins (and hold the rent money to pay for the project), and then, when the economy tanks, you evict the tennants within a week (they knew this from the moment they rented, and get a discount for their inconvenience), destroy the properties, and begin construction right away.

Lastly, you use non-traditional Ancient Egyptian style construction methods that exchange the efficiency of gradual construction for the speed of mass-building, erecting your structures in less time with more people employed, distributing the money more quickly and effectively. It is more expensive in accounting terms, but in economic terms is so much more effective as a stimulus that the books likely (though I have not worked out the numbers myself, so please do so before jumping off a cliff) balance. This last aspect was not done by Nazi Germany or Eisenhower, but was to a very mild degree done by FDR with the Hoover Dam, to his credit.

The rental helps with the keynesian process, as it is not the level of consumption but the difference in consumption that creates mayhem, and holding back some currency that tennants pay in rent to pay for the project later on shallows the wound. The speed, of course, also helps with the keynesian process, spending the money more quickly.

This way, the projects can begin within a week of the economy hitting the tank, and they will be the valuable kind that America needs, rather then "shovel-ready" bridges to towns with less then 200 people that spend plenty of money but build little long-term gain.

Uptown Platform, NYC, courtesy of Adam J. Sporka. In the opinion of some, the New York Subway built the city.

Classic American Cities - Seattle

Downtown Seattle from Gasworks Park (Mine,public domain). Above: Pioneer Square, 1917, C.F. Todd

I grew up just across Lake Washington from the mighty metropolis of Puget Sound. This city, renowned for it's coffee, it's hippies, and it's software and businesspeople, has a complex personality at once laid back and pretentious, hot-headed and calm, Western and modern, rebellious and traditional, and both outspoken and quiet.

Courtesy of National Parks Service. Public domain.

The downtown area of Seattle was originally a tideflat with islands. In the center of the above picture is a triangle of three streets, known as the Denny Triangle. That triangle was an island that the first part of downtown Seattle was built off of. Today, you have to walk several blocks to the water and the docks. Garbage and landfills were used to fill the tideflats, depositing additional land off of the triangle for more city to be built. In addition, Seattle, in 1907, destroyed a hill and deposited the dirt that was contained in it across the lowpoints. Denny Regrade:

Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikimedia

The hotel in the background still stands, known as the Josephinum, at 1902 Second Avenue. To this day, the attitude of being able to shift mountains and proudly, perhaps even foolishly, see no obstacle is a major part of Seattle's character.

The University of Washington has been a part of Seattle since 1861. It's original campus was on University Street in Downtown, although it is now located near the Montlake Cut about 5 miles Northeast. The University, according to William Spiedel in his book "Sons of the Profits," was fonded off of leasing a land-grant contianing nearly the entirety of the Lake Washington shoreline. The land was leased out for building of industrial facilities too large for a homestead, and lead to the development of Seattle's Eastside off of industry (of which almost none remains today, except at the North and South ends, Kenmore and Renton.)

Ballard is a Scandinavian ethnic neighborhood to the Northwest of downtown.

Ballard from the air, Walter Siegmund. Gnu License 1.2

To this day, the Ballard high school mascot is the Vikings, and many Ballardians are commercial fishermen. The area has a very different social ambience to it, a feeling more down to earth then the rest of Seattle, very welcoming, and very humble. The scandinavian immigrants are part of why Western Washington is different from any other Western State, and you will find them throughout the state, but make sure, when you are in Seattle, to take a trip to Ballard, the epicenter of it. And don't be surprised when you hear hymns in Norwegian at church.

One of the many fine Scandinavian traditions carried over to Seattle is celebrating Midsummers Day, also known as the summer solstice. In Fremont, a traditionally hippyish neighborhood near Ballard, they have a nude bicycle race every summer solstice.

Seattle does have a tradition of Seattle Nice, and Washington State being partially Scandinavian and partially Scots-Irish, it can be considered roughly a mix of Minnesota and Colorado. The very happy side to their nature is they do tend to be welcoming and open. The dark side to their character is they have a tendency to expect people to be perfect and emotionless. And their "nice" does not cover you when you say extremely stupid things, or what they pereceive as such - nor does it prevent them from trash talking. They do have a sense of honor, however - witness people working in Seattle and you will see some of the most dilligent and motivated workers you have ever seen. And despite their tendency to trash talk, both aggresively and passive aggresively, they And they can be very free-spirited and entrepreneurial, though some of that is now disappearing.

Seattle is, unfortunately, effeminizing right now as every shop and business has decided that if they paint the walls pastel, create a painting of a wineglass somewhere and sell tacky merchandise they will make more money. Add to this some recklessly bad transportation policy (like charging $6 to get in to the city from the Eastern Suburbs, and wasting billions on a rail system expected to carry 20,000 passengers) and it comes down to this: If you want to Seattle, hurry, it may not be there tomorrow.

They will learn eventually, though. :(

Guidelines for Effective Mass-Transit, discuss

As an engineer, if I were to outline five rules for effective mass-transit, they would be these:

1 - Focus on rails - Buses give one advantage over cars to their consumer, you don't have to park them. Rails, be them light or heavy, still give this advantage, but also give the advantage of not being part of the road network and thus ignoring traffic and stop lights, and this combined with the guiding force of the rails for turning leads to a higher effective speed, often in excess of 60 MPH in what would otherwise be 30 MPH driving territory for at least sections. They also have greater energy efficiency and can be built with a 0 carbon footprint if electrified with nuclear or wind power.

2 - Focus on natural lines - places where you have a very high density of traffic flowing between effective points on a single line.

3 - Ignore the Park & Ride - if people have to drive a car to use your system, they will need to park that car somewhere, and to remove a sufficient quantity of traffic to make rail construction worthwhile you would need Airport-size garages. That level of volume would also create new traffic problems of its own.

4 - Widen Sidewalks - Not technically part of the system, but if people feel comfortable to walk, they will travel further to and from stations, widening the effective radius of any particular station or stop.

5 - Focus on the Inner City - Natural lines, and the heaviest use natural lines, will lie within the city almost by definition, as it is where the highest density, and thus highest likelihood, exist. It is also generally the most pedestrian friendly place and the place where the most utility (potential places to work, shop, play) exist within a certain distance of a station. Don't even consider building to the suburbs until the inner city is covered or the folks in the burbs will have nowhere to go.

6 - The system is for the people, and not the other way around. (This isn't a rule so much as a general attitude.)


Comments, questions, objections, queries, fact checks, discussion of examples, and personal insults are all perfectly welcome!