#Washington is planning a #RoadUsageCharge (#RUC). The main driver for this seems to be that WA is mostly funding its road maintenance from the gas tax and that is projected to fall significantly, ostensibly due to EVs ("from $1.3 billion in 2026 to under $1 billion in 2035" - https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2023/10/11/washingtons-long-road-to-replacing-the-gas-tax/). I understand that the migration to EVs causes revenue loss that needs to be addressed but I'm very skeptical that an RUC can be implemented in a reasonable way.
This sounds like it will cause huge administration overhead.
The charge is per mile. Not all miles traveled cause the same cost to society though. A 2.5 ton F150 causes more damage to the road than a 1.8 ton Leaf or a 1.5 ton Soul. Not to speak of a 4.5 ton EV Hummer.
An #RUC will do nothing to alleviate congestion. The price is too low to get people to use public transport instead in places where it is possible and will still make people pay who have no other choice.
A toll system w/ #CongestionPricing could be an alternative. The problem with this is that something like #GoodToGo needs expensive equipment. The cost of building this out needs to be weight against the cost of #RUC. My guess is that the long term cost of it is lower than the administrative cost of RUC with all its exemptions. It can be made much fairer by only charging in places where alternatives are available and it's a better tool to address congestion and environmental concerns. #Traffic
Going down the rabbit hole... Looks like WSP Global - a Canadian consulting company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSP_Global - is pushing #RUC across the US and many DOTs are buying into it. Seems like something #StrongTowns should have on their radar but I could not find them commenting on it.
"An estimated 90,000 Kenyans were slaughtered in the Kikuyu uprising while just over a thousand were hanged on a portable gibbet. Some 160,000 were detained in internment camps where torture was routine.
"One of Britain’s victims was US President Barack Obama’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, who was arrested in 1949, and tortured by having pins inserted under his fingernails."
Kitson brought to Belfast his experiences in Kenya, fighting the Kikuyu Land and Freedom Army (exotically dubbed the “Mau Mau” by the British) in the early 1950s where he honed a practice of using “turned” or “converted” rebels into “counter-gangs”.
"The battle of the Bogside was an important catalyst for change, triggering a determined British government intervention that ended the unionist monopoly on power. But it also marked the beginning of 30 years of violent conflict that would claim the lives of more than 3,600 people and bring untold suffering."
This is the sort of negligent #journalism that hinders #ClimateAction. Not only does Niles Bijoux ask the wrong question, the answer he does provide is incorrect and based on lazy assumptions (see 🧵 ).
Tl;dr: In #NZ, a #Tesla Model Y #EV is cheaper to run than a hybrid Toyota RAV4, even when factoring in Road User Charges (#RUC), but more importantly (and omitted completely) produces an eighth of the #GHGemissions.
EU Commission CRA drafters using the "Free and Open Source Software" term to mean "proprietary software delivered at no cost, and open source software" shows how much of a disconnect there is... and that sometimes being factually correct doesn't help.
@koherecoWatchdog@tcarrez If the @EU_Commission can’t get this right, it’s a disaster because they are used as an example for language usage. Language is important. #RoskildeUniversity (#RUC) has an internal webpage entitled “free software”, where they actually distribute gratis proprietary copies of MS Office. They refused to correct the language misuse.
@EU_Commission@tcarrez@koherecoWatchdog In principle we should be able to compel #RUC to change their embarrassing and harmful misusage of language by pointing to the EU Commission.