General Road and Highway Discussion

[p2ee]

Opinion piece in the Kitchener Post today:

Car drivers get more subsidies than transit users

Couple things I'd like to add:

1)  It's naive to use the toll rates for a privately owned for-profit highway as the benchmark for what a tolled road would cost. The toll rates on 407 includes profits for the 407 ETR company -- after all, it has investors -- which is why the toll are so astronomically high. In 2015 (link) they made 223 million profit on 888 million revenue.  Comparable toll roads in the US on roads that experience similar maintenance and similar wear and tear (including due to the weather) are significantly cheaper.  The tolls on the new provincially owned section of the 407 is also meant to generate a profit to be invested in infrastructure elsewhere.   
2)  Every time a car is sold and then re-sold, there is the HST that has to be paid.  A cheaper new car with $20,000 value generates $2600 in taxes, not to mention the taxes generated on the re-sales.  That tax revenue is not being considered and is probably at least $500 a year on average.