01-30-2018, 10:12 AM
You’re right that most people are drivers- but should someone who drives occasionally all of a sudden be responsible for a share of the maintenance of the roads calculated based on the value of the property he owns? Is it really appropriate that someone who drives 20,000 kilometres a year on local roads might pay the same towards their upkeep as someone who drives a tenth of that distance?
I would guess that the biggest cross-subsidy is not from “non drivers” to drivers, since the former are a small percentage and do glean benefits from the road network even if they never drive a car on it. It’s more likely that it would be from light users to heavy users. That’s also a big problem for everyone, since the way things are set up now, there’s no signal as to the actual cost of the road system, and people are therefore encouraged to use it wastefully.
I would guess that the biggest cross-subsidy is not from “non drivers” to drivers, since the former are a small percentage and do glean benefits from the road network even if they never drive a car on it. It’s more likely that it would be from light users to heavy users. That’s also a big problem for everyone, since the way things are set up now, there’s no signal as to the actual cost of the road system, and people are therefore encouraged to use it wastefully.