Old 08-13-02, 10:28 PM
  #21  
the_stew_man
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I don't think personal cars will ever be outlawed but I do think it is possible to control their use. Their use can be controlled through the use of tolls, the use of selective number plates e.g Mexico City (two colours of number plates, one for even days and on for odd days of the month) also Athens I think uses a similar policy (but people get around this by having two sets of plates). I know for a fact that in Singapore the government tries to limit the usage of cars through a number of ways. They try to provide at least one alternative means of public transport; be that public buses, mass rapid transport system and a light rail system. The government also attempts to control or reduce the amount of traffic that clogs the CBD (central business district) by using an electronic road pricing system, (this system electronically deducts a fee for entering a restricted area). The government also implements a fee called the COE (certificate of entitlement) this fee raises the price of your cars by about 30,000 Singapore dollars thus cars normally cost around 100,000 Singapore dollars, also the COE is only valid for a period of 5 or 6 years. When this period is over, people are encouraged to purchase a new vehicle or pay 5,000 Singapore a year to keep their car on the road. These measures manage to keep traffic down to a reasonable level compared with other cities in the world of similar size.

I think that cars/trucks/motorbikes are such an integral and essential part of our lives; it would be impossible to remove them. To put it in the terms of economics they have gone from a luxury good to an essential good. Cars that produce less emissions and that have more miles to the gallon are the answer to our problems. We won't get ride of cars but we can reduce the amount emissions they produce.

My second point is that cars are not the main source green house gases. Methane is the biggest greenhouse gas; methane is produced by cows, the paddy fields that feed Asia, rubbish dumps, sewerage facilities and grain farms. Anything that involves organic waste produces methane even humans directly contribute to the green house affect every time we fart. The pollution situation is not as simple as the media portrays it to be. Their are a number of interlinking factors that need to be tackled to reduce pollution. Carbon dioxide emissions and methane emissions need to be reduced that is the simple fact. The only way this can be done is by reducing "global" emission’s, so this includes the good old US of A. Well I better shut up before I start getting all emotional about "Kyoto"

Just my final point, the oil companies would not go out of business if people stopped by gasoline for their cars. Crude oil is refined into over 300 parts or something. All plastics are made up of components from crude oil, ExxonMobil has had record profits for the last two years, this isn't because people have been consuming more gasoline or petrol it is because they have been selling more of the other components of crude oil, for example tar and propane. The money is made from other oil products and chemicals derived from crude oil.

Well I hope people didn't mind my little rant, i was just trying to clear a few issues up.
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