Funding roads (taxes, user fees etc)

[jeffster]

Wired published an article this week about highway funding in the U.S.A. I generally trust their journalism (and also find them hilarious), and I found it interesting how they talked about not only how the funding for highways is not being covered by drivers, but also the many externalities of driving.

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Things aren't perfect, but no sense of screwing around with things.
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Whatever issues I have with the rest of the comment, this one sticks out.  The idea that things just stay the same if we do nothing is so pervasive and yet, so false.

The fuel tax has devalued substantially given improving fuel economy in vehicles.  It will eventually (and not that far out) go to zero once electric vehicles become more common.  The fact it, in the do nothing scenario, drivers are paying less and less of the costs of driving (however little they have ever been directly paying), while incurring greater and greater costs against the rest of the public.

Our world is always changing so to take no action *is* a change, but it's one with very little thought put into the effects.

I'll mention again, though, then, who's responsibility is it to keep the roads in good shape? Just the general public who drive around with personal ICE's?

Whether one drives or not, or if we were to ban personal ICE's and EV's all together (since any milage an EV puts on doesn't contribute money to the roads), roads still have to exist, and still need to be paid for. So we increase fares for public transit, not only to reflect true costs of running said system, but additionally for upkeep of the road. Busses are heavy and damage roads way too quickly. Also tax the fire department, police department, and ambulance services as they use all the same roads too. Same applies to garbage pick-up and recycling, they would be charged even more because their vehicles are extremely heavy. Same applies to transport trucks that delivery good, we can charge the crap out of them because they use our highways the most. Naturally, more and more of these vehicles might be EV's, so charging a toll is the only option, no tax on ICE's.

We have a system in place that can work well enough. Mess with it too much, unless it's some sort of universal system (as in, it's adopted world-wide), and you'll find yourself left behind. Just look at the mess with Ontario's electrical system.

You want to fund roads differently, fine, toll them Toll cost is more dependant on weight of vehicle than anything else, but also passenger count. For example, a bus with driver and 3 passengers would be charged more per user than a full bus, in fact, fare would be milage based. Not fair for a user who uses a bus when it's busy (and has to stand) and travels 5 km the same as a user that rides a near empty bus for 15 km.

drivers are paying less and less of the costs of driving, while incurring greater and greater costs

What does that even mean?

I'll agree to the second part. My insurance is up 16% year over year, and gas is up about 10% year over year. So yeah, drivers are incurring greater and greater costs. Unsure who is paying less to drive.