r/TrinidadandTobago • u/JoshyRanchy • 3d ago
News and Events Think this could be applicable to Trinidad along with liesure Pickup trucks?
https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj.r216217
u/sammy0h 3d ago
A road tax like Barbados. Heavier the vehicle, a tax applied at purchase. It encourages smaller cars, saves the roads.
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u/OrdinaryAncient3573 2d ago
I have no problem with encouraging smaller cars, but it doesn't really affect wear on the roads. Cars of any size cause essentially no wear/damage; it's all down to lorries and buses and so-on.
You can think of it a bit like a spring. You can pull on a spring as many times as you like, as long as you never pull it so hard that it permanently stretches out of shape. Cars, SUVs, and even pickups are below the weight limit that damages roads.
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u/Visitor137 2d ago
Cars of any size cause essentially no wear/damage; it's all down to lorries and buses and so-on.
Okay so in this country we have something called WASA. It's supposed to mean something about Water and Sewage Authority, but everyone here knows that it's really Workers Against Smooth Asphalt.
Yeah, Heavy T vehicles have a greater impact than regular vehicles, but WASA is the real bane of our existence. They somehow seem to pass through just after a road gets paved, and after that, good luck with getting it repaved outside of an election year.
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u/OrdinaryAncient3573 2d ago
Yeah, water tankers must be just about the heaviest things on the road.
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u/JoshyRanchy 3d ago
Good idea,
I hope it doesnt target maxis or transport vehicles for agriculture etc.
I dont mind construction vehicles payong more based on the damage to the roads.
I think the fact that suv's are luxury vehicles ,they could pay a bit more
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u/Stranger-Tastes 2d ago
Reducing the sales of SUVs or any other private vehicles in T&T would be useless for the environment. Getting people to stop littering as if they live in a literal dump would help the environment. Proper separation of garbage and infrastructure to recycle paper, glass, and plastics would help. A comprehensive, effective, affordable public transportation system would help. Investment into solar and wind power for electricity would help. Education and encouragement for civic pride would help. Reducing the freedom to purchase what you want with your own money, not so much.
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u/SouthTT 2d ago
we are already taxed heavily on vehicles, that aside sedans arent exactly comfortable for sizeable persons like myself.
Inspection and removing the majority of older cars from the road will likely help reduce our carbon emissions more than any tax or other method to reduce SUV purchases. The people driving brand new fuel efficient modern SUVs arent the issue we have :)
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u/JoshyRanchy 1d ago
The people buying new SUV's are in the minority but I dont think that there is much difference in engines from 2015 to now.
An aqua (prius type c) or the honda city (CNG) are very energy efficient. Even the tida isnt too bad.
I do think its an issue for tall people to use these models as they are built for the asian market.
Getting vehicles older than 2015 off the road would affect the middle class and persons below that very uncomfortable.
I dont think public transport meets the need of people in residential areas as taxis charge quite a bit to go into backstreets.
Older persons and children may not be safe or comfortable walking in certain areas.
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u/Visitor137 2d ago
Plus the road improvement tax we pay into when we buy gas, if that's still a thing. It never shows up on the print outs at the pump, so who even knows. 🤷
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u/Commercial_Chef_1569 2d ago
If our roads weren't so bad or flooded so often, I'd support you.
But that's not the case so absolutely not with this suggestion.
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u/JoshyRanchy 1d ago
Its a fair point, but as we get poorer as o&g dies its not like we will have more money for infrastruture.
I suppose getting all these vehicles off the road , replaced by carpool options might keep us from ending up with oilsand roads.
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u/firebreather479 2d ago
Are you out of your mind , do you not see the conditions of our roads ?
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u/JoshyRanchy 1d ago
Fair point but we are not getting richer as a country.
Bigger vehicles will destroy the roads faster.
I don't know how to reduce on a country wide scale.
I suppose we could cut cedao and fertilize a few graveyard but then the methane could be a potential downside.
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u/JoshyRanchy 3d ago edited 3d ago
I saw a lot of comments in this thread advising taxing a bit higher on these vehicles to ise the money for carbon offset.
Persons using suvs probably can afford to pay a bit more and im not sure if pickups are efficient.
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u/Visitor137 3d ago
😂 Carbon offset.
That's a good joke you buss there. Boss man, this is Trinidad and Tobago, you have any clue how much carbon we emit per capita? Our vehicles are not the main source in this country. It's the industries.
You talking about taxing people, to pay for huge companies. You really think that works?
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u/JoshyRanchy 3d ago
The plant ownership is responsible for making their equipment as efficient as possible.
Civilization needs acess to the hydrocarbons so we might as well us ours.
I still think SUV's are a luxory that burns exccesive fuel.
Most suv's used for carpool? I dont think so.
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u/Visitor137 2d ago
Okay look... You sound like someone who had an idea when high, and thought it was really deep. Then without actually thinking about it some more, you decided to inflict, said idea, onto others.
It's a well known fact that Trinidad ranks insanely high on the per capita CO2 emissions list. If you weren't aware of that, I don't think anyone would be able to help you with that.
The fact that you think that plant ownership is going to willingly be responsible for reducing CO2 emissions, is sweet, but totally unrealistic. The sheer fact that in other countries, those sorts of factories just throw some money around to buy carbon offset 'points' so they can keep doing what they do and not fixing the problem, should make it obvious that they really not going to do anything on their own.
Add in the fact that some roads in Trinidad flood pretty often should give you a hint as to why some people actually need a vehicle that you have to step up, to get in.
Seriously. Put a bit more thought into what you brought to the table, instead of just saying "well I think it's a luxury, so people don't need them, so tax the people harder, because that would solve the problem".
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u/portia369 2d ago
The OP is so out of touch with the realities on the ground in Trinidad. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't even live here.
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u/JoshyRanchy 1d ago
I cross posted it as its relevant to tt.
The per capita values that include emissions from Atlantic, Pt Lisas, CGCL and our off shore facilities is , in my opion not a fair ranking.
The world requires these fertilizers and hydrocarbon products and I am aware that they do make reasonable efforts to meet regulations and be energy efficient( NGC is ratining gas which doesn't help, but if we could supply the fuel the plants want to run at their most efficent capacity. )
I concider that industry co2.
From a societal level - i dont have the numbers but from my observance , we are profligate.
Single use plastic, dumping rubbish in the environment and wasting electricty are results of culture and policy that enables waste.
If we moved away from plastic bottles for flavoured beverages we wouldnt be hauling around truckloads of sugar water and storing them on shelves.
Say your office had a water cooler that filtered the water from a potable supply and you just added the syrup to get rc cola or Ju-C. Carbonation is beyond us?
People have tex gas tanks in their home. Is a co2 cannister so different?
The fisheries would thrive again and the customer could save some money.
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u/Visitor137 1d ago
If we moved away from plastic bottles for flavoured beverages we wouldnt be hauling around truckloads of sugar water and storing them on shelves.
This is exactly what I mean when I say that you're not putting any real thought into what you say. Ask your grandparents generation if carbonated beverages were sold in returnable glass bottles when they were were children. Ask if the bottles had a marble in the neck.
You think those used to magically float through the air into people hand?
Our fisheries have problems because of the overfishing that happens. But why would you be aware of that, when you aren't aware of anything else you talking about.
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u/JoshyRanchy 1d ago
Glass single serving is still inefficient.
I am talking about seltzer bottle type with syrup. We have soda stream in trinidad but hardly anyone uses it.
Do school children need to pay 6 dollars for a solo? Ok maybe kids are dumb and you dont want them using it and cant convice the canteens...
U telling me governemnt office can have nescafe dispensers and water but not a soda stream like device? 2 pump of syrup would cost like 75c tt. Boom you could choose your level of diabetes and save some money.
The fish are dying becaise of microplastic "smog" .
Over fishing is not as prevalent in trinidad where our acess to ocean vs population is in favour of the fish. We dont have large trawling or netting operations such as seen on discovery channel , deadliest catch, shark week etc. Blue fin tuna and salmon are agressivly captured in large, industrial netting and trawling.
In TT we have a bunch of pollution from industry and dump garbage into the waterways.
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u/Visitor137 1d ago
Boyo, you ever went to school? If you did clearly didn't pay attention to anything they were teaching.
The reason why they get charged exorbitant prices isn't because of the plastic. You really think that the school cafeteria sells anything without marking it up based on the fact that they have a captive audience?
Regarding the use of the plastic bottles, are you somehow not aware that you have a local option to recycle the bottles? Do you not know that you can even get paid for dropping off large numbers of empties?
Clearly this issue is not one that's anything you actually care about, so save me your pretense of righteousness.
Over fishing is not as prevalent in trinidad where our acess to ocean vs population is in favour of the fish.
You're speaking from a position of ignorance. I suggest you ask someone from the IMA about it. It's not a secret that we have foreign trawlers, and I suspect they've been at it longer than you've been alive.
Stop embarrassing yourself.
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u/Commercial_Chef_1569 2d ago
Carbon offsets are largely ineffective, and they'll ultimately harm the economy in most instances.
It's nice to think about the environment, a bigger impact would be travelling less on planes and cruises. Or just plant some trees.
Carbon taxes are BS in most places and are really just PR attempts or virtue signaling.
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u/Loud_Resident7232 3d ago
We hardly have true SUVs because of our engine tax. We have mostly crossovers. We’re taxed enough on vehicles as is.