The United States is already a global leader in traffic-related fatalities, with a thirty-percent jump in the last decade. That’s in contrast to every other developed country, which saw a decline.
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The electric Ford Lightning, for example, is a whopping 6,500 pounds. The Hummer EV is even heavier, clocking in at 9,000 pounds. Its battery alone weighs more than a Honda Civic. Experts have pointed out the significant safety ramifications of this transition for a while, but it’s still not clear that we’ve prepared the regulatory and policy landscape for such a transition.
Even if you don’t want a giant, extremely heavy EV, the tendency to purchase such vehicles creates an arm race for everyone interested in protecting their family on the road. That in turn causes a shift away from smaller EVs in a bid to feed the elemental materials needed for ever larger EV batteries.
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“Norway, a pioneer in EV use, is considering a weight-based tax to steer buyers away from the fattest EVs (the Norwegian government recently eliminated EV purchase incentives). France already has one on SUVs. Buyers of new diesel and gasoline vehicles must pay a tax of €10 ($14.58) a kilo (2.2 pounds) above 1.8 tons. The weight threshold is to be reduced. EVs are exempt, but as those vehicles become heavier and more popular, it seems they will get swept into the weight-based tax net.”
A smattering of localities have tried to prepare for the threat. DC, for example, has imposed a creative vehicle registration fee schedule that has heavy EV truck and SUV owners paying higher registration fees than lighter EV sedans. But it’s an outlier.
Something important to consider with regards to weight and road damage, damage is proportional to weight to the fourth power. A little extra weight means a lot more wear. This is also why we should be shipping most things by train, as trucks are absolutely annihilating the roads.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
Yeah, and it comes up a lot when people say EVs aren’t paying their fair share and should have increased registration costs. The biggest hit on road maintenance is big trucks, and it’s not even close. We are all subsidizing this industry.
Yep. No one wants ro talk about a real weight tax, because if they charged trucks their proportional share, shipping costs would go through the roof.
But what if we moved them onto a separate road, made of metal?
Thay would be crazy, they would all be running at different intervals. You would need some system to link all the cars together, with a singular engine. An Onomotive or something like that, we can figure out the name later.
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A bicycle can’t move without someone sitting on it pedaling, so I think it’s fair to include the weight of the rider.