[pp.int.general] Big Brother in NL?

[Richard Stallman]

    which has the knock-on effect of raising public transport costs.

Not necessarily.  Public transport can be exempt from this tax.
Public transport is usually subsidized, more or less; it would be easy
and painless to increase the subsidy to counteract the increased tax.

								     And
    makes unprofitable routes/services (such as late night/rural) routes

Only if the solutions above are not employed.

These decisions are public policy decisions, not primarily economic.

    and driving (ho ho!) people back towards cars.

This tail can hardly wag such a big dog.

						  It may even price people
    out of using taxis, which could mean more drunk-drivers as a side
    effect.

Unless someone gets drunk quite often, the increased price of a taxi
will not amount to enough money to change his decisions.

It seems you are grasping for molehills to make into mountains.

    We (me and the wife) do so many miles a year because we have no other
    choice.

If you currently have no other choice, why is that?  Probably because
our housing and infrastructure were set up for a certain gasoline
price.  The way to make that change is to show everyone that gasoline
is going to be more expensive.

Stopping global warming will involve unpleasant sacrifices.  Compare
it with maintaining the status quo, it looks very bad.  But
maintaining the status quo is not an option.  We have to compare it
with the disasters that are otherwise coming.