User fees and road costs
Last month, there was an interesting report from a US group called The Tax Foundation on the fraction of US state and local road costs contributed by registration fees, tolls, petrol taxes, and other charges for road users. It turned out to average about 1/3 — that’s just actual monetary costs, not the costs that drivers impose on others through congestion or carbon emissions.
In New Zealand, the fraction for local roads seems to be higher — if you look at the Funding Assistance Rates that say how much the NZ Transport Agency pays toward council road maintenance, operation, and renewal, it varies around roughly 50% (for Wellington, it happens to be 44%). According to NZTA, the rest of the money comes through mechanisms that don’t specifically target drivers, such as council rates.
So, why did I single out the 44% for Wellington? Well, that’s where anyone not at the wheel of a car is apparently a `guest’ on the roads. Or, with unsettling plausibility, `roadkill’.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »
There is lots of virtual ink being spilt at
http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/when-common-sense-isnt/
over the coroners comments about high vis gear being made mandatory for cyclists. In particular, it seems that the coroner made his remarks (1) without recourse to any evidence, and entirely based on an appeal to “common sense”, and (2) the guy who was clipped by the truck was wearing high vis gear so this incident can hardly be a sound basis for the coroners recommendation.
It actually made me think that it is almost a “stat of the week” in extreme: a completely unfounded conclusion by the coroner based on…no statistics whatsoever.
The Herald article you linked to illustrates quite nicely the point made by some commentators that the media has focused on the recommendation regarding compulsory high vis clothing thus taking the focus off cars as lethal weapons in the hands of an inattentive person. And the Herald nicely missed out that the person in question was wearing high vis gear.
12 years ago
Thanks. I’ve commented over there with a list of links. I’m surprised the Taupo Bicycle Study isn’t getting more coverage — it’s local, fairly recent, and estimates a substantial benefit.
12 years ago
Btw, the seemingly rabid post appears to have been intended as satire from an avid cyclist
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/8323890/Businessmans-anti-cyclist-article-ironic
12 years ago
Sigh.
Isn’t that precisely the sort of thing we pay the mainstream media to be able to find out before they report?
12 years ago