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How Electric Cars Could Make America's Crumbling Roads Even Worse

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

Phoenix666 writes:

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 Whoever on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:43PM (4 children)

    by Whoever (4524) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:43PM (#807097) Journal

    Did you even read the article that you linked to? The price rises appear to be unrelated to taxation -- in fact, there has been a reduction in taxes on electricity.

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  • (Score: 2) by pipedwho on Tuesday February 26 2019, @09:18PM

    by pipedwho (2032) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @09:18PM (#807266)

    The price rises are because they sold off the public electricity infrastructure to the private sector. And naturally when you have no real competition or repercussions, you raise prices as much as you can get away with. There are legal limits to the price hikes, but like toll roads they are well above the inflation rate here in Au.

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 26 2019, @09:35PM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @09:35PM (#807274) Journal

    And? How's that relevant for how much I pay on electricity?

    You reckon if the price gonna go up because of taxes is gonna make less a hole in my pocket?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0

    • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:43AM (1 child)

      by Whoever (4524) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:43AM (#807454) Journal

      Sigh.

      Go back to your original post:

      Electricity tax can be slowly ramped up today, in tiny increments and requires nothing more than a bit of paperwork, and people will barely notice until it's too late.

      Too late already down-under. [abc.net.au]

      See, your post was in the context of taxes rising on electricity and you wrote that it was "Too late", implying that taxes had already caused an increase in taxes on electricity.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:59AM

        by c0lo (156) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:59AM (#807461) Journal

        Sigh

        Electricity tax can be slowly ramped up today, in tiny increments and requires nothing more than a bit of paperwork, and people will barely notice until it's too late.

        Too late already down-under. [abc.net.au]

        See, your post was in the context of taxes rising on electricity and you wrote that it was "Too late", implying that taxes had already caused an increase in taxes on electricity.

        (I'll let aside the "taxes had already caused an increase in taxes prices on electricity")

        No, what I'm implying is "with so high prices already, any increase will immediately be noticed, because many people - myself included - are already on the edge of their patience with this shite!" (in contrast with "people will barely notice").
        Is it clearer now?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0