Originally Posted by
KathrynInCanada
And to encourage people to take the transit, they do two things, 1) make it reasonably priced and 2) tax the heck out of automobiles. Many countries have a 100% tax on a new car as well has petrol prices at time 100% more expensive than North America.
Taxing the gas would be a lot more effective than taxing the automobiles.
Taxing fuel encourages people to use transit, drive more efficient cars, and take fewer trips - taxing new cars just encourages people to keep older (less safe or efficient) cars on the road for longer (although if you tax all cars on an ongoing basis, such as with the registration, that eliminates it somewhat but doesn't carry the other positive effects of taxing fuel.)
The other thing that cities can do individually is to stop subsidizing parking so heavily - let city owned parking rise to market prices - and stop requiring new developments to build parking (and then tax the spots if they do.) If people can't park someplace cheaply and they have a way to get in via transit, they will.