Also discussed here: The true costs of automobility Study about the external costs of car use in EU-27(The Greens in the European Parliament. Dec. 6, 2012)
And here: Car pollution, noise and accidents 'cost every EU citizen £600 a year' Researchers challenge view that drivers are overtaxed, saying they are subsidised by other taxpayers (Peter Walker, the Guardian, Dec. 25, 2012)
Today we review a report on the costs of driving cars for the 27 countries in the EU. The results are startling: 373 Billion Euros total or 750 Euros per person each year. Most costs come from accidents and air pollution impacts. Reducing these costs to achieve greenhouse gas emission goals alone may miss more efficient cost reduction options. Although the details of this conclusion are not explained, it is assumed that long term fuel efficiency measures or implementing electric cars for example presents much more cost than applying a simple congestion tax or road toll to discourage needless driving. The belief that road and fuel taxes pay for all of the costs of driving is erroneous.
Key Quotes:
“External costs in this report are stated for passenger cars on roads in the following six cost categories:
- Accidents
- Air pollution
- Noise
- Upstream and downstream effects (covering all effects before and after the actual trip is performed)
- Smaller other effects (land use, separational effects etc.)
- Climate Change”
"On the contrary, it must be stated that car traffic in the EU is highly subsidised by other people and other regions and will be by future generations: residents along an arterial road, taxpayers, elderly people who do not own cars, neighbouring countries, and children, grandchildren and all future generations subsidise today's traffic."
“Because “others” pay for large parts of the costs of transport, Europeans travel by car too much to enable an efficient situation. This in part also explains why there is a high level of congestion in parts of the EU.”
“it must be stated that car traffic in the EU is highly subsidized by other people and other regions and will be by future generations: residents along an arterial road; taxpayers; elderly people who do not own cars; neighbouring countries; and children, grandchildren and all future generations subsidize today´s traffic. They have to pay, or will have to pay, part of the bill.”
“Many projections of avoidance curves are based on new technologies aimed only at achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions… This approach is misleading because other fields (like economic approaches or land use approaches or behavioural changes) are neglected; and these are fields in which reductions come at a much cheaper price.”
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