On the road again: how tax policy drives transportation choice

Virginia Tax Review, Wntr, 2005 by Roberta F. Mann

If children don't face long distances or dangerous traffic, they do walk or bike to school. (180) The CDC's study found that 64% of children walked and 21% of children biked to or from school if it wasn't too far or too dangerous. (181) According to researchers, even a little bit of walking or biking can be enough to achieve significant health benefits. (182)

    Walking and cycling plummet with increasing car ownership (from
    43.5% to 7.1% of all trips), thus depriving people of much needed
    exercise. With 64% of Americans overweight in 2001, and 31% obese,
    leading medical and public health journals have explicitly advocated
    more walking and cycling for daily travel as the most affordable,
    feasible, and dependable way for Americans to get the additional
    exercise they need. Similarly, the US Surgeon General specifically
    recommends more walking and cycling for practical, daily travel as
    an ideal approach to raising physical activity levels. The
    availability of cars appears to present an almost irresistible
    temptation to drive instead of walking or cycling, even for short
    trips. Walking in European cities has also declined over the past
    few decades as auto ownership levels have risen, and obesity levels
    are now rising there as well, although they are only about a third
    of American obesity rates. (183)

For optimum human and environmental health, people must be weaned from their cars. Public transportation is far more fuel efficient (184) and causes less pollution (185) than private automobile use, but increasing transit use will require behavioral modification, made even more difficult by prevailing low-density land use patterns. (186) However, as communities embrace alternatives to the automobile, pollution and fuel consumption will decrease, and land use patterns will develop more sensibly. Significant economic benefits may accrue from reducing automobile dependence. Land no longer needed for roads, parking lots, and related infrastructure will be available for more economically productive development. A better transportation system improves workers' access to jobs and can attract businesses to a community. Decreased reliance on cars leads to reduced oil consumption. The dollars previously spent on fuel imports will be available for domestic economic development.

III. TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES

The above discussion illustrates the problems and perils of automobile dependency. As this paper focuses on the impact of the federal tax system on transportation choice, only a brief discussion of the alternatives to automobile use is warranted. Comparing the transportation modal mix in the United States with other countries may be helpful in determining the practicality of attempts to reduce automobile dependency. Finally, to some extent automobiles themselves can be reformed by technology. While better cars can still get stuck in congested traffic, can still kill many people on the highways, and can still encourage a sedentary lifestyle, at least technology can mitigate negative effects on the environment.