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It’s Not The Cars, Stupid
How regulators fail to analyze root cause and end up creating inane regulations.
Every once in a while people become agitated about vehicle emissions. Whenever this happens, experts jump up and down demanding better fuel economy from vehicles. We’re also told that people should drive during non-commute times. People should move closer to their place of work. Let’s increase the price of fuel so as to discourage driving! Let’s have road congestion charges!
Over the years I’ve read every kind of well-intentioned proposal. Each one serves merely to illustrate how utterly clueless urban planners, traffic experts, policy experts, and consultants can be.
The thing is, if we pause for a microsecond and actually engage brain, we can instantly see that all of these ideas are stupid.
Why? Because they all assume that the people doing the driving have a wealth of choices available to them. This assumption is wildly wrong. So all the well-meaning proposals to cut the number of miles driven end up penalizing those who can least afford to pay.
Who can really afford to sell their house and move their children to a new school district because they’ve just secured a new job? Only the wealthy. Ordinary people can’t indulge in financial suicide.
