Funding roads (taxes, user fees etc)

[ijmorlan]

"I consider that a two-lane (single lane each direction) network of roads should be provided free, on the theory that some vehicle access is needed “everywhere”."

I've considered writing a response to this a couple of times, because I think there are a number of fundamental flaws with this approach/proposal.  

But the one I'll go with, is that it treats everything from Northern Ontario to Downtown Toronto the same.  A single lane road in a very high density area isn't really providing vehicle access because its going to be completely unusable.  The level of service in those two places is completely different.  So if we change your idea to be that some basic level of 'transportation' service should be provided to everyone, I'm totally for it.  That covers the ability for people/goods/emergency services/etc. to move at least somewhat efficiently.  In many places this means by car, but in some places it means by mass transportation.

You left out the bit where I said that additional capacity would be provided on an engineering basis. Most four-lane roads around here are full of single-occupant vehicles whose occupants could be riding a bus or LRT. I’ve waited for a bus on Fischer-Hallman and counted single-occupant vehicles going by. At rush hour there are several every single minute, probably enough to justify a bus service running every 2-3 minutes. So under my idea, there would be a single general traffic lane and a transit lane in each direction. Any capacity that couldn’t be handled by the general traffic lane would be handled by transit. If you don’t like the congestion, you can travel at a different time, use transit, or pay for a toll lane to be added to the road. Society has no obligation whatsoever to give car drivers as much free road space as they can use. I was going to continue with “any more than it has an obligation to provide as much free bread as everyone can eat” but I think there is actually a better case to be made for free bread than for free roads. For one, it (or some form of food) is essential to survival. For another, it would probably cost less than our fixation on free roads.

Having said that, there may be some locations where free four-lane roads are justified. It would depend on the details of how the system was to be set up. For example, there might be places where the volume of traffic from trucks carrying things that can’t go on transit justifies a four-lane road. On the other hand, maybe that means we need to build a toll lane. There might also be places where the design of an intersection requires small segments with additional lanes. Certainly, my design would have turn lanes almost everywhere — the single lane in each direction would have a single purpose, that of moving traffic, not storing it while somebody is waiting to make a turn. So my intersections would be almost as big as our actual intersections, but the roads between the intersections would typically be much narrower.

Short version: no more free ride for motorists!