nicklockard
Torque Dorque
True, but the larger vehicle is also doing more road damage, regardless of how many passenger-miles or ton-miles it is transporting.TurbinePower said:The only real issue with that is how many ways there are to cheat odometers. Bit hard to get out of paying the tax at the pump unless you steal the fuel.
Miles per gallon follows vehicle mass fairly well, but I wouldn't necessarily say "fuel efficiency" does. Perhaps in the conventionally understood sense (Raw MPG figures), but that 6mpg transfer truck is using its fuel more efficiently than that 35mpg Corolla, for all it's burning more of it every mile.
I think people make this odometer cheating thing out to be something big--I disagree. The average person would find it prohibitively difficult. Yes, there would spring up a cottage industry of "crackers"...but just like in computer security, you always have to stay one step ahead of them. Oregon DOT and OSU researchers are researching means of tracking miles by a black box...combine a GPS black box with registration information, and there you have it. Nowadays GPS units are getting cheap enough to make this practical on a wide-spread basis.