Funding roads (taxes, user fees etc)

[danbrotherston]

All of this mileage you're putting down has real actual costs to you as well.  The real cost to you for depreciation, maintenance, and fuel is going to be at least 30 cents / km.  This is a real money that you're paying every time you go drive a km.  The result is going somewhere just 100 kms away would cost you around 30 dollars.  Obviously this depends on your vehicle, driving habits, etc. but it is real money out of your pocket.

Are you telling me that now I've pointed this out too you, you're going to stop volunteering?  Or is a mileage charge on top of that just too much?  Or is it something about it being a bill from the government that causes your volunteering to dry up?

Unsure where you get "at least 30¢/km".  It varies greatly between cars/trucks/suv's, etc. A new SUV, for example, is probably going to be more than 30¢/km. Someone buying a used Honda Civic it might be close to 10¢/km.

That said, for those that do a lot of volunteer work (and I am one of them), it will change the way we do things. I don't know if anyone can actually cost out the 'real' charges that any particular vehicle should be charged, but say if it's 20¢/km and someone does 100km driving for their volunteering, that's about $87/month in additional fee's. And it's unlikely they'll save $87 in property/income tax to offset.

Again, though, I'm ok with this. Just make sure EVERY SINGLE VEHICLE pays their share. Doesn't matter if it's fire services or garbage services or school busses. No subsidy for anyone. Same goes for transit, no subsidy. Hopefully ridership goes up enough to make it worthwhile. Though as it stands, I can take my kids to a Toronto Blue Jays game for about $40 in transportation costs, $20 for gas, $20 for parking. That compares to about $85 for GRT to GO station, and GO Train to Union Station and back (Group pass because it 2/3 the cost).

No easy solutions. I was actually surprised that with the highway between Kitchener and Guelph wasn't tolled...and I am surprised they don't extend it out to Milton.  That seemed simple to me. You want the old cruddy highway 7, go for it. Or pay for the beautiful 407 ETR to Guelph and Milton and beyond...yep..and I would use it. Maybe 3 or 4 times a year. Time is money, money is time, but hopefully you'll have more time before the money ends, to spend with the loved ones. Missed opportunity.

Tolling the rest of the roads..just a poor idea...at least for now.

Why should there be no subsidy for transit?

Look, this comes back to p2ee's point.  Why do we subsidize things in society at all?  Why aren't all government services a pay per use.  

The reason is public good.  We subsidize healthcare because we all benefit from having better healthcare.  We subsidize education because we all benefit from the economic strength of having a highly educated workforce.

And we also subsidize transportation (not transit, not roads, but transportation) because we all benefit from the economic activity generated by having easy and cheap transportation.

But then we have a policy question, what schools should be subsidized, and how much, and how do we create a fair society.  The hope is that government subsidizes the most effective cheapest way to get the benefits we want for society.  

This is why subsidizing public health policies and other preventative care is a good policy because it's far cheaper and more beneficial to society than just subsidizing acute care.

The same can be seen for transportation.  Transit, active transportation infra, are all policies which give us the benefits we wish to see from cheap easy access to transportation (that being, economic activity) at a far lower cost, both in terms of dollars--it costs less to transport people by bus or train than individually in cars--and in social, health, and environmental costs --traffic has huge impacts on society.  Now yes, we cannot completely replace all road use with transit, but the question of what degree we should subsidize things has an effect on how much they're used.

This is why I argue we should subsidize single occupant vehicle driving less than other forms of transportation.

Edit:

And just FYI, I got my numbers from CAA, I picked numbers on the low side, of a new car. Like I said, everyone's particular situation will be different, but everyone will have a number, and you can probably figure that number out with some work, but my point was, is it the fact that a) you see the number more directly when you're tolled, b) that it's just too much now when it wasn't before or c) the fact that it's a direct government fee, which was so distasteful to creative and perhaps others, that they would stop volunteering. Because the idea that driving is free (or nearly free) otherwise simply isn't true, the only real differences are a), b), and c).

And yes, transit to Toronto will be more expensive when you're travelling with a family, and frankly, if you take a loaded sedan down to Toronto, you *aren't* part of their traffic problem. Like I pointed out earlier, single occupant vehicles are the least efficient, most socially, and financially expensive vehicles on our roads--they are the real problem.