Critical mass for cars

Okay it sounds like a stupid idea fresh from Detroit. But hear me out. Yes, Critical Mass for cars turns the thing on its head a bit, but its nothing at all about bikes, you do it on the freeways where bikes aren't even allowed. What you do is get a hundred or more hybrid and fuel efficient car owners to all drive together in one of those classic freeway packs. Keep them all close enough to stop anyone passing, and best of all - drive at the spped limit. There's one thing about all SUV owners, no matter what the traffic speed, they always hate to behind someones car, they love to pick up the cellphone, bitch about the traffic and then pass, weave and get ahead. During commute hours a pack of small, fuel efficient cars that they can see way past, but cannot actually pass will drive them crazy.

Thanks to my friend Jimmy for putting the germ of the idea in my head. His point was that if SUVs want to enjoy the tax and fuel efficiency loopholes assoicated with trucks then they should be jammed into the truck lane with the real trucks. I know this wont really work because they are actually exploiting tax loopholes of commercial vehicles. A small modification might be to tighten the loophole so that a large percentage, if not all, of the mileage has to be for legitimate and documented commercial purposes. Otherwise you have to pay over the odds in tax for your vehicle, or find one that is fuel efficient. What is unfair with that? Californians are saying its unfair to hike taxes for cars because it hurts the poorest in the state, however who can argue that hiking SUV taxes way up would hurt the poor? What poor person that they are trying to protect can afford to run a $20-30K+ SUV that's probably costing $0.20 a mile in fuel alone? Why not tax fuel inefficient luxury cars to subsidize fuel efficient economy cars? Why not heavily tax second, third and fourth cars not used soley for purposes of work, educational, health and social care? This is as fair as the mortgage interest tax relief rules that apply to houses.

My point is there are plenty of ways to raise taxes fairly, its never just the simple black and white options that politicians present to us. After all when it comes to cutting taxes there's never an shortage of interesting and clever ways to slice and dice tax regulations to open up a hole big enough to shove a few trillion dollars through, so why not the other way around?

In the mean time I can't wait to get my hybrid car and start organizing Critical Mass events all around the Bay Area. Power to the fuel efficient! Death to the gas guzzling behemoths!