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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 Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
But what can you do with it?
-- ubiquitous cry from Linux-user partner
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @02:46PM (8 children)
How about regular taxes instead of consumption taxes? How about mileage * weight**2 tax when renew insurance on your car?? Or just, you know, general tax? I know, mind blowing.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:31PM (6 children)
Taxes are the right way.
Troll roads are the wrong way.
But you can have the advantages of both. You know how Troll roads have those automatic readers with tags so that you can drive right through? Put those everywhere.
* The government now knows everywhere you drive, and when.
* They can tax you appropriately
* In a very convenient way
* Either debit your bank account, or build it into payroll taxes, or something even creepier that I have failed to think of
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:18PM (3 children)
Indeed, the trolls tend to damage the street even more, instead of repairing it.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 26 2019, @06:29PM
It's the DAMN GOATS! They'll eat everything!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:18PM (1 child)
On the other hand, trolls can thin out the traffic [google.com].
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @01:57PM
Here's a link to the actual image, for those who prefer not to feed Google: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FremontTroll.jpg [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:56PM (1 child)
Not everybody wants The Man tracking their vehicle's every movement.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 26 2019, @06:52PM
Did I need to include a sarcasm tag?
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 1) by Gault.Drakkor on Tuesday February 26 2019, @10:51PM
If you are taxing on mileage, that essentially is a consumption tax(consuming a distance of road wear and tear).
Which I would prefer to a general tax because it better reflects use of resource. AKA user pays. Then it also is a voluntary tax in so much as driving a vehicle is voluntary.