My guess is their thinking is based on damage to road surface rather than on fuel consumption. Damage to road surface varies with some unlikely power of pressure exerted. I can't remember references right now unfortunately. But it works out that cars & vans cause effectively none of the damage, medium-sized goods vehicles cause vast amounts, larger trucks & busses less than you'd think (multiple axles, bigger tyres) and the occasional giant load (construction crane, tunnel sections, tank transporters, whatever) a lot more. Ken David Honig wrote:
At 04:23 PM 9/24/01 -0700, mmotyka@lsil.com wrote:
I also think we should learn a lesson from NY - annual vehicle registration costs are based on vehicle weight.
Mike
That's not fair. It penalizes safer (more massive) cars without regard to their actual petrol consumption.
If you only tax cars you ignore driving habits --you subsidize 'wasteful' (but fun) driving, e.g., accelerating faster than fuel-optimal.
The market is fair: just let the price of gas be established by a free market. Then everyone can decide whether they want a 1000 lb, 300 hp car or a 3000 lb, 100 hp car, or something in between.