Is there a reason that road maintenance funding has to be tied to the vehicles which drive on them? Just because I live in a city and never drive anywhere doesn’t mean I don’t take buses or use goods transported by road. Should my taxes not contribute to the upkeep?
That should be baked into the bus fare (which should be subsidized anyway). We want to link road maintenance to usage as directly as possible to incentivize driving less. Flat fees, or convoluted schemes break this link and effectively encourage unlimited driving. A per mile fee tied to the weight of the vehicle should be the most fair.
We want to link road maintenance to usage as directly as possible to incentivize driving less
That makes sense.
A per mile fee tied to the weight of the vehicle should be the most fair
That sounds like a good idea. The weight of the vehicle is easy to determine. The distance is harder for the government to measure, which is the topic of the OP.
Is there a reason that road maintenance funding has to be tied to the vehicles which drive on them? Just because I live in a city and never drive anywhere doesn’t mean I don’t take buses or use goods transported by road. Should my taxes not contribute to the upkeep?
That should be baked into the bus fare (which should be subsidized anyway). We want to link road maintenance to usage as directly as possible to incentivize driving less. Flat fees, or convoluted schemes break this link and effectively encourage unlimited driving. A per mile fee tied to the weight of the vehicle should be the most fair.
That makes sense.
That sounds like a good idea. The weight of the vehicle is easy to determine. The distance is harder for the government to measure, which is the topic of the OP.
If you’re in the U.S, afaik you’re already paying for the local roads, as gas tax does not fund them.
On top of that, it’s probably good if heavy users pay proportionally - it’s not a particularly good idea to subsidize road overuse.
Ah, I’m in Canada, where it looks like some portion of the gas tax funds road repair.
Fair enough, that is an excellent point.