The Forum > Article Comments > It’s not the size of your engine, it’s what you do with it > Comments
It’s not the size of your engine, it’s what you do with it : Comments
By Gaurav Sodhi, published 20/6/2007If the Queensland Government was really interested in helping the environment it would be advocating higher petrol taxes, not higher car registrations.
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In terms of motor vehicles I tend to agree with Alzo that standards should be written in terms of performance, rather than specifying a particular technology. Another issue that has been ignored is the weight of the vehicle. The damage done to the roads goes up with the fourth power of the mass, so that a 3 ton truck will do 81 times the damage of a 1 ton truck. (There was a New Scientist article on this some years ago.) This damage is not adequately reflected in registration or other taxes. Goods that could more efficiently be sent by rail or by ship go by truck, and fleet owners save on labour costs by using bigger trucks, since you and I will be paying for the extra damage to the roads.