12-19-2016, 08:37 AM
(12-19-2016, 07:40 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: Short version: no more free ride for motorists!
We’re so far from motorists covering our own costs that any movement away from the free ride we’re getting now would be a good one.
I share tomh009’s wonder at the fact that governments haven’t taken advantage of abnormally cheap gasoline prices to raise the gas tax recently. I would say that that would be the place to start, and maybe investigating VMT, implementing road tolls on certain high-volume highways, and introducing carbon pricing. Those things seem politically achievable, and are a step in the direction of low-occupancy vehicles covering their own costs.
It doesn’t seem likely to be able to toll all roads above a base level of service, as much logical sense as that might make. The free ride has been going on for so long, people who drive (the majority of us) would balk strongly at anything like that. But we can move towards a situation where more of the costs of low-efficiency transportation are borne by the people making transportation decisions, so they can make better choices.