Abortions vs. Guns

[PLAYER57832]

I also think, anecdotally, that people who live in cities do not generally drive cars.

Depends which city. London it seems like almost no one drives, Beijing there were cars everywhere.

[/quote]
People in LA definitely do drive, in SF not so much, (though in Sacramento, San Jose, etc they tend to more so). In LA this was a very caculated economic decision from the auto and oil industries.

I'll make a list and edit as I think of more things:

(1) Car manufacturers will go out of business, costing the state significant tax revenue.

Utterly irrelevant because one manufacture will be balanced by another. Not into keeping a destructive industry simply to keep jobs. Either it makes sense or does not. The current auto industry is heavily subsidized, often mismanaged and more and more overseas (so not so great a tax boon anyway).

(2) Employees who work at car manufacturers will no longer have jobs, costing the state significant amounts of money in lost tax revenue and unemployment.
(3) Companies that sell cars will go out of business, costing the state significant tax revenue.
(4) Employees who work at car dealers will no longer have jobs, costing the state significant amounts of money in lost tax revenue and unemployment.
(5) Companies that manufacture car parts will go out of business, costing the state significant tax revenue.
(6) Employees who work at car part and accessories manufacturers will no longer have jobs, costing the state significant amounts of money in lost tax revenue and unemployment.
(7) Companies that sell car parts and accessories will go out of business, costing the state significant tax revenue.
(8) Employees who work at companies that sell car parts and accessories will no longer have jobs, costing the state significant amounts of money in lost tax revenue and unemployment.
(9) Many gas stations will go out of business, costing the state very significant tax revenue.
(10) Employees who work at gas stations will go out of business, costing the state significant amounts of money in lost tax revenue and unemployment.

Irrelevant. Needs of societies change. People adapt. We are not going to cease transport, just shit how its done/move onto other needs. That's like saying we should skip home washing machines because it put public laundries out of business.

(11) Significant amounts of buses will need to be purchased by the government, costing the state significant tax revenue.
(12) Significant amounts of bus operators will need to be employed by the government, costing the state significant tax revenue.
(13) Significant amounts of bus infrastructure (e.g. bus stops, depots, etc.) will need to be constructed by the government, costing the state significant tax revenue.
(14) RESERVED FOR TRAINS

Add in a WHOLE lot of externalities. With less oil drilling means a LOT less hazard to sea life, less impact on commercial fishing and ocean transportation. Air pollution and runoff pollution from oil/gas leaks everywhere goes down. Less hazard to people -- particularly schools and homes located near refineries/certain manufacturing plants, etc. (asbestos is no longer used in brakes, I don't think, but our town and many others still have the impact.. etc.)

Possibly less land infrastructure, potentially better designed (this is highly debatable.. it could happen, but likely won't. Likely any new system will be built more or less on top of the old) to have less destruction of both rural occupied and unoccupied ("wild") lands.

ETC.

(15) RESERVED FOR ROAD MAINTENANCE
(16) RESERVED FOR OIL COMPANIES AND EMPLOYEES -- don't forget significant health costs for these employees. Also, the fact that these tend to be "boom and bust" jobs (the mentality of those who take the jobs as well) leads to higher percentage of folks needing disability or retirement subsidies.

My additions:
(17) Increase of train maintenance/infrastructure, plus other alternative transport maintenance needs
(18) Buses. I would generally NOT see buses as a reasonable alternative to cars, except in certain crowded city locations, because so many simply run empty. Also, relying on buses too much would eliminate the benefit of lower road maintenance.
(19) trucks -- eliminating trucks would really do far more than eliminating personal vehicles. Trucks should be essentially just for local transport and we can use better technology within the large trucks as well.
[/quote]

[PLAYER57832]

Money allows you to convert your soft commodity to a universally accepted hard commodity.

This was the case. Now, most money is made in way far removed from the direct creation of any product. That is part of the problem. People making decisions are very far removed from anything but monetary impacts of their decisions.

[PLAYER57832]

How's the Prussian Carp there? We are just starting to have problems from people releasing them here.

Not sure about the Prussian Carp. Asian carp have been here since before they introduced rainbow-stealhead and the other western trout.

Its one of my classic examples of human error in biology --- the Europeans settlers brought Carp because it was a "far superior" game and eating fish to the "strange" trout we have here.

If you ever come down this way, Pymatuning has a place where you can feed carp. They line up so thick it seems you could walk on them. Fun for kids, even if not particularly ecologically great. (Recent education efforts have improved a bit)

[2dimes]

They eat everything and starve out all the other fish.

[PLAYER57832]

They eat everything and starve out all the other fish.

ah yeah, just googled it.... there are a few others like that. Pretty hard to impossible to get rid of once introduced. Its one reason for all those "unnecessarily and picky" inspections/trade regulations, etc.