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Lately folks are worried about how to fund the roads with electric vehicles. Of course, there are very few EVs on the road… yet. They’re talking about some onerous taxes with privacy implications. Tax mileage, so you would have to take your car to the DMV every year, or worse, attach a device that always lets the state and federal government know where you are. Law enforcement and the NSA love that idea.
But I say do away with road taxes altogether. Before the 20th century, neither the state nor federal governments built roads. Many of the larger cities did, but not states; roads aren’t necessary for horses and wagons. The first drivers of autos bought gasoline in five gallon cans from hardware stores.
By the 1920s states had started paving roads, and in 1919 Oregon instituted the first gasoline tax, one cent per gallon. In 1919, few people had autos and most goods were still transported by water, rail, and horse drawn wagons. It made perfect sense that those who needed roads should pay for them; why should horse owners, whose steeds were expensive enough, have to pay to provide roads for the rich with cars? In Vachel Lindsay’s 1920 book The Golden Book of Springfield about the year 2018, cars and airplanes were still toys for the rich.
But the real 2018 was nothing like Lindsay’s 2018. Today, horses are toys for the rich, and cars, buses, and trucks haul the goods and people. Everyone needs the roads and highways today. What’s more, commerce does almost all damage to roads, why should automobile drivers have to pay for them?
The states and the federal government should just let gas taxes slide, and fix the roads with the same funds used to fund everything else. Just keep the gas tax to nudge people towards electric vehicles. Gasoline and its exhaust stinks, especially with a poorly tuned engine. The sooner gasoline and diesel are gone, the better.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 01 2021, @08:51PM (10 children)
So, the idea is, neighborhoods that don't see commercial traffic never experience potholes? Hmmmmm - Okay then. You don't have to pay fuel taxes for cars anymore. Or for electric cars. You all ride tax-free.
BUT, if commercial vehicles are paying for the infrastructure, then it would only be fair that the money is spent exclusively on commercial routes. I think people will learn quickly that cars DO damage the roads. Not sure how school buses are classified. They're big, but they don't weight a whole lot. Bluebird typically fall in between 22,000 and 27,000 pounds - a bit more than I thought. But they aren't the concern of commerce, you'll have to figure out how to patch your own neighborhood roads.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday December 01 2021, @09:06PM (1 child)
That's why you should tax by weight, not usage. And for people who walk, there has to be a "Nike" tax, sidewalks crumble too.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 01 2021, @10:12PM
Leave Aunt Ethel at home, and it will cut your weight tax in half! Don't worry about Uncle Ted, he hasn't been able to waddle through the door for 15 years.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 02 2021, @12:51AM (2 children)
*yawn*
Learn the difference between "all" and "almost all."
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 02 2021, @02:25AM (1 child)
Don't try and handicap a republican like that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 02 2021, @04:13AM
Right. You do that by the length of their nose and the weight of the jockey.
And the success of their business.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday December 02 2021, @03:39PM (1 child)
So, the idea is, neighborhoods that don't see commercial traffic never experience potholes?
Here in Springfield there are 100 year old roads paved with brick that still have no potholes.
You don't have to pay fuel taxes for cars anymore. Or for electric cars. You all ride tax-free.
You pay income tax, sales tax, property tax, why does there need to be a fuel tax?? Fund the roads from the general revenue! EVERYBODY USES THE ROADS.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 08 2021, @12:14AM
Some people use the roads harder than others. It all depends on how socialistic society wants to be.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 07 2021, @05:11PM (2 children)
I usually agree with you, but not this time, you are flat-out wrong. I live on the street I grew up on in the '70s and 80s. It's a cul-de-sac of about 13 houses, only truck traffic is UPS and the like, and a very occasional moving van 18-wheeler. The street was built / paved in the 1950s, and has never been repaved. I can think of 1 pothole repair.
Besides the lack of destructive truck traffic, one major factor in the street's longevity is that things were made much better in the 'good old days'. They're finding ways to do everything cheaper and cheaper... in the short run, but of course in the long run, I'm seeing roads being repaved after maybe 5 years.
Another factor: my street has no underground utilities, so is never dug up (by idiots who never restore the roads properly). We all have private wells and septic (with no problems, but the septic tanks must be pumped ever 3 years).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 07 2021, @05:24PM (1 child)
So, 100 vehicles in and out would be an extremely high traffic day. The all-time record is probably under 200 vehicles in and out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 08 2021, @12:10AM
Extremely. 50 would still be a lot.