What about the bicycles?

I read an article in Best Life that said more than 80% of the public space in New York city was roads reserved for motor vehicles. Now don't get me wrong. I love driving. But 80% of the space?! Is that really necessary?

So I thought about it. If the current government in Norway was serious about the environment they'd build roads for bicycles (and pedestrians) with a roof over them to shelter from wet weather. That would certainly get more people using their legs to get to work. The health benefits would probably save us a nice lump of money in the long run too! I'd expect a few more broken bones along the way - but bones heal.

So why don't they do it? Well the only thing they really do is increase taxes on cars and gasoline. Which only serves one purpose - increasing the income of the government. Because what would happen if people actually started using their legs instead? The government would see a significant portion of their income dwindle away. Now that's something the bureaucracy beast does not want to see happen - the money is needed to fuel the expenses of the beast. I heard somewhere that we have twice the bureaucracy of Sweden - yet our population is half of theirs. I have no reason not to believe that.

Here's my plan for Norway. I'd like to remove all taxes on cars - even the sales tax (MVA). While at the same time we built roads and planned such that you could safely get where you wanted to go by bicycle. Now if we did want to punish the motorists we should do it by increasing the tax on gasoline much more. Doing it this way would make it easier for people to buy a nice safe car. You'd only pay taxes on the actual usage. Which again would motivate you to buy a car that is very fuel efficient.