Raise the gas tax? Are you crazy?

I see a lot of people are talking about now being the time to increase the tax on petrol here in America. I've got to say I think they're crazy. In Europe, higher petrol taxes are supposed to fund public transport and road projects. Instead they prop up government pension and health insurance programs. The idea is to 'encourage' drivers to ditch their cars and use public transport.
Newsflash : that doesn't work if the public transport system is poor, or non-existent. Look at England - they pay more in gas tax than we pay for the gas itself. The three stacked taxes are all percentages added on top of each other, resulting in about a 515% equivalent tax. Gas tax + fuel duty escalator + sales tax = wholesale rape of the motorist. I Don't say that lightly either because the simple fact of the matter is that there is no alternative. For decades, government after government have trimmed, underfunded and slashed public transport across the country. So they know there is no way the average driver could use public transport. In other words, gas tax is blackmail. You can't use public transport - you have to drive, which means you have to fill your car with petrol, which means you have to pay the tax.
Now consider that scenario in America - a country designed around the road system. This summer showed what high petrol prices do to a country reliant on roads - the cost of everything went up so high that it contributed to plunging the country in to recession.
So think about that if you support higher gas tax. Because once we're paying $10/gallon for petrol over here because of taxes, you won't be able to complain if you supported the move.

Snow tyres.

It seems the right time of year to bring up snow tyres. For those of you who live in sunnier climes, this is a moot point, but for those of us for whom the early morning commute means blasting through fresh snow, snow tyres are a must-have item.
For years, M+S tyres (mud + snow) were nothing more than a super-blocky tread. They sort of worked, but once the tread blocks were full of compacted snow, their performance fell off dramatically. In the last few years there's been a revolution in snow tyres with more 3-dimensional tread, more deep siping and stickier, softer rubber compounds. The current generation of purpose-built snow tyres, like Bridgestone Blizzaks and Firestone WinterForces are nothing short of amazing to drive on. I've fitted some of the WinterForces to my OE wheels. I'm fortunate that I have aftermarket alloys, so I have two sets of wheels - the aftermarket ones with the all-weather tyres, and the OE Honda jobs which now have the snow tyres on them. For the last couple of days I've been having a complete blast on the slick, snowy roadways of Utah. I kid you not - the current generation of snow tyres are simply incredible in their performance. On all but the hardest of hard-packed snow, it's like night and day compared to all-weather tyres. Acceleration and cornering performance is way up as is braking performance. Not the same as dry road performance, obviously, but a whole lot more confidence-inspiring than regular tyres.
The WinterForce tyres can be fitted with studs but I've opted not to. So if you live in the snowier parts of the world and haven't tried the current generation of snow tyres, I would seriously recommend you do.

Have a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful new year.