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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday February 26 2019, @02:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the exceedingly-crumbly dept.

Phys.org:

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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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:31PM (6 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:31PM (#806966) Journal

    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.
    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:18PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:18PM (#807008)

    Troll roads are the wrong way.

    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

      by Gaaark (41) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 26 2019, @06:29PM (#807138) Journal

      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)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:18PM (#807325) Journal

      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

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @01:57PM (#807595)

        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)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @04:56PM (#807040)

    You know how Troll roads have those automatic readers with tags so that you can drive right through?

    Not everybody wants The Man tracking their vehicle's every movement.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday February 26 2019, @06:52PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 26 2019, @06:52PM (#807161) Journal

      Did I need to include a sarcasm tag?

      --
      The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.