Wyoming just approved a 10-cent per gallon hike in their fuel tax. It had pretty sweeping support… people will actually vote in favor of tax raises for obvious infrastructure needs.

Not only is Virginia placing a levy against alternative fuel vehicles, they are also drastically reforming the funding structure. A few highlights:

• Dropping the 17.5 cent fuel tax
• 3.5% wholesale tax on gasoline
• 6% tax on diesel fuel
• Boost state sales tax by .3% and shift $200 million a year from sales tax into the highway fund

Kind of interesting. That wholesale tax is just going to get passed on to consumers. And making the fuel taxes percentage instead of fixed means that as fuel prices rise they state will get more revenue… to a point. At some point rising fuel prices triggers a decrease in demand. I’ve not heard of anyone else doing fuel tax by percentage like this.

So Virgina just past a transportation bill that will up the fee for registering hybrid, electric, and alternative fuel vehicles. Expect to see a lot more of this.

So many state transportation bills rely heavily on gas taxes, as do federal bills. On the one hand we want people moving to more fuel efficient vehicles but on the other hand a reduction in consumption is a reduction in revenue. People have to pay for their fair share for the wear-and-tear of the infrastructure. The gas tax no longer provides funding that is proportional to use. Technology is to the point where we could easily move to a pure usage tax for the roads. Why don’t we?

So many problems in this article about trying to update the taxi system in New York City.

1. Livery cabs in NYC are not allowed to pick up street hail passengers. A measure to changes this outside Manhattan is bend held up in court.
2. A proposed e-hail system that would allow people to use their smartphone to hail a cab is being held up in court.
3. Implementing a new, more fuel efficient taxi model in NYC is also being held up in court.
4. NYC is trying to accept a contract from Nissan for this more fuel efficient taxi that will give them sole source power for new cabs in NYC.

To put it simply, a bunch of competing special interests are tying up and preventing improvements to the NYC taxi system. This is all possible because of a quagmire of administrative rules and laws that NYC has enacted to regulate the taxi industry. What a mess.

I’ve never understood why the yellow taxis are predominantly Ford Crown Victorias. They are gas guzzlers. Why aren’t some of the companies using Honda Civics, Toyota Corollas, Chevy Malibus, of even smaller cars?

Why is it illegal for one group of cabs to pick up street hail passengers and illegal for another group of cabs to accept pre-arranged pickup?

What NYC seems to have is a bunch of different taxi services that have a monopoly on their respective service. When there is a desire to add value or improvement for the customers it gets mired in regulatory court battles as these monopolies try to protect their turf.

Seems like the whole business could be greatly simplified. Create a simple system of standards for the cabs and allow operators to pick the cars they want to match those standards. Let companies accept passengers in whatever form… street hail, pre arranged over the phone, regularly scheduled, smartphone app, etc. I’m sure there is a need for more regulation and rules than I’m aware… but from the article above I’m also sure there is currently far too many regulations and rules. Consumers, as well as the industry, seem to be suffering for it.