Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 497510)

Why not All Of The Above?

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 497507)

I live in a place where zoning decisions made decades ago have complicated fucked any prospect of good transportation policy. (Notwithstanding, I had managed to arrange my life to have a short, non-freeway commute, until a jackass financier came along and re-arranged things.)

My point was that if you are trying to create incentives to get car makers to build these cars, it makes some sense to give the stickers to the first x such cars from a given manufacturer, rather than the first y such cars. That spurs product choice and development, rather than a huge first-mover advantage.

There are lots of other things one could do that would create better incentives still. Raise gas taxes and use them to fund other transit. Re-zone to encourage development around transit. Fund transit that works. But, drivers vote.

The car salesman was predicting that electric cars will continue to sell. I doubt it -- I'm overcoming the range limitations for the HOV sticker, but if that wasn't the sweetener, I'd be buying something else.

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 497507)

My point was that if you are trying to create incentives to get car makers to build these cars, it makes some sense to give the stickers to the first x such cars from a given manufacturer, rather than the first y such cars. That spurs product choice and development, rather than a huge first-mover advantage.

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 497512)

say if you buy a car and get the sticker, then next year that car's sales spike, do you lose your sticker?

Originally Posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.) (Post 497513)

I take it that any new model meeting certain criteria can get an HOV sticker up to some specified production volume? With the idea being that it gives an implicit subsidy (at the expense of all other drivers) to cover the fixed costs of a new car rollout?

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 497515)

If I understand correctly, hybrids get a green sticker and zero-emission vehicles get a white sticker, both of which allow one to use the HOV lanes, which are otherwise not crowded, since people don't carpool. Calling it a subsidy at the expense of all other drivers seems wrong, since no one is proposing getting rid of HOV lanes, which might violate federal law or something. You could say that it's a subsidy at the expense of carpoolers, except that there are so few of them that it doesn't seem to clog the carpool lanes. It's a funny property right, in that sharing it more widely does not seem to diminish the value to others until you hit a tipping point, and then it totally does. It's clearly a subsidy, but from whom is less clear.

Originally Posted by Did you just call me Coltrane? (Post 497487)

I am probably late to the party but Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is just outstanding. Watching it for the second time and it's just as funny.

Originally Posted by Not Bob (Post 497511)

I forgot to mention that he dumped Bridget Moynahan after he got her with child outside of the bounds of matrimony. No gentleman would do such a thing to a nice Irish Catholic girl.

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 497515)

If I understand correctly, hybrids get a green sticker and zero-emission vehicles get a white sticker, both of which allow one to use the HOV lanes, which are otherwise not crowded, since people don't carpool. Calling it a subsidy at the expense of all other drivers seems wrong, since no one is proposing getting rid of HOV lanes, which might violate federal law or something. You could say that it's a subsidy at the expense of carpoolers, except that there are so few of them that it doesn't seem to clog the carpool lanes. It's a funny property right, in that sharing it more widely does not seem to diminish the value to others until you hit a tipping point, and then it totally does. It's clearly a subsidy, but from whom is less clear.

Originally Posted by taxwonk (Post 497532)

Not that I actually buy into the underlying premise, but, if one is going to describe someone as a "nice Irish Catholic girl," doesn't her pregnancy sort of belie that?

Originally Posted by taxwonk (Post 497533)

I'm having trouble understanding how it disadvantages other manufacturers or gives the first mover an advantage. You haven't yet said there is an overall cap on the number of stickers. That being the case, it doesn't matter if Chevy and Ford each have an additional 20 million in sales, provided any other manufacturer can get the same benefit for any and all electric or hybrid vehicles it manufactures.

Originally Posted by Adder (Post 497442)

I think people are way too hung up on cheating to begin with and am skeptical about all attempts to broaden the definition of what's a "betrayal" that should threaten a relationship. I also think it's a handy way for some people to deflect from the issues in the underlying relationship.

I just can't imagine caring about my spouse's relationship with someone else other than to the extent that its interfering with our relationship (a stalking "friend" would certainly meet that definition) or symptomatic of something the two of us need to work on.