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To fix the potholes and crumbling roads, federal, state and local governments rely on fuel taxes, which raise more than US$80 billion a year and pay for around three-quarters of what the U.S. spends on building new roads and maintaining them.
I recently purchased an electric car, the Tesla Model 3. While swerving down a particularly rutted highway in New York, the economist in me began to wonder, what will happen to the roads as fewer and fewer cars run on gasoline? Who will pay to fix the streets?
Will toll roads become universal to bridge the funding gap?
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How Electric Cars Could Make America's Crumbling Roads Even Worse
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The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover's Lane holding his own hand.
-- Fred Allen
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:47PM (9 children)
You don't need a freaking GPS, although the governments will doubtless claim you do. Cars already have odometers, and they are already tamper resistant. Just report that.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:52PM (3 children)
A tire tax. Tire wear is a function of mileage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:06PM
this would actually work better than fuel today.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:28PM
Wait.. I have a vision. I see... I see it now...
I see wheels with no tires [youtube.com] becoming a mundane reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @09:06PM
No, tire wear is not a simple function of mileage -- I posted above on this, copying here as well:
Tire wear is a bad metric, very slight changes in driving style can make huge differences in wear. My SO accelerates moderately while unwinding the steering wheel after a city corner, this is a common behavior. I wait until I'm nearly straightened out before accelerating moderately. I also lift the throttle when I see a red light ahead, coast down and minimize braking. I get nearly twice the tire mileage that she gets. I adjusted my driving style at some point in my middle age after working with tire experts at a couple of different tire manufacturers.
It's the combined turning and accelerating that makes all the difference to the front(drive) tires. But it's hard to see that this would have any appreciable effect on wearing out the roads faster?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:52PM (4 children)
This doesn't work for interstate travel
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:20PM (2 children)
The current fuel tax doesn't really work for that either. I live and work in Rhode Island, but I can't remember the last time I bought gas in this state. Might happen three or four times a year. I cross from RI to MA and back to RI every day on my way to work, and the gas station I always stop at is in the middle of that MA portion. Most of my driving is in RI, but nearly all of my fuel taxes go to MA.
But either fuel or tires is probably good enough for most situations...it's not perfectly fair, but that unfairness is likely to go in both directions and more or less balance out.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:36PM
Oh sorry, you replied to the odometer suggestion not the tire tax suggestion. That depends on how often they read the thing but it's probably "good enough" too...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:43AM
It may not be perfectly fair but it is perfectly simple.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:09PM
Actually, it does work for interstate travel, with a little discipline. Keep a notepad (or tape recorder if you prefer) and record your odometer reading each time you cross a state line. I did it for years. As a truck driver, you have to turn all those numbers in at the end of each trip anyway, so you get used to doing it. Most drivers keep their log books close at hand, and write the numbers in the log book. I never did that because it gives the diesel cops more evidence to bust you with. They tend to take log book violations seriously.
With all of that said - private citizens aren't ever going to exercise that kind of discipline. So, you hand the duty over to the onboard computers.