C. E. White
Yes, and if motorists paid ten times more than they do, I'd be happier. But there's art in logical compromise, so let's look at this logically.
As I said before: we could base fees on road space consumed per year, times weight. This is incredibly generous to motorists, since road damage is proportional to weight raised to a rather high power (something like weight to the sixth power, IIRC). And besides, most bikes move approximately zero miles in a year.
Nonetheless, when I ran some numbers on that VERY generous basis, I computed that the bike fee should be 1-18,000 of the car fee. So, roughly 20 cents.
I think you should lobby hard for this! You know, letters to your congressmen, television spots, op-ed pieces in the paper, the whole nine yards! Twenty cents per bike! Why, it's so logical!
And I'd be right behind you. I'd donate my 20 cents by mail right now, if I only knew where to send it! Too bad the stamp is so expensive!
Incidentally, you really should get behind my computation method. It makes little sense for me to be charged as much for the 1500 mile per year Honda Civic as I'm charged for the 10,000 mile per year Pontiac. Same goes for you, with your four cars and one driver.
Want to team up on this? I'll do my part by sending you my 20 cents. You can do your part by the publicity spots, letters to the editor, sign-on-a-stick, whatever. ;-)
- Frank Krygowski
