Dumb.
Increase the gas tax to account for the externalities of gas emissions.
Create a tire tax to tax road usage. Damage to roads is a function of miles travelled and vehicle weight, which are factors that can be roughly estimated for tires (sidebar: I believe it is also a function of speed, but we can assume speeds are roughly constant on highways, and could also account for this in the gas tax, since higher speeds require more gas per mile). Road damage increases linearly with miles travelled (obviously), but via the 4th power (hypercubically???) with vehicle weight. So we can estimate a fair price based on the estimated weight of a vehicle that would use such tires and the expected longevity of the tires.
Another option could be implementing a registration fee that records the odometer each year.
Most (If not all) states do have regularly scheduled vehicle registration fees. Problem is they’re just way too low to pay for the road use. It’s a few hundred bucks every year or two in most states. If drivers were actually paying for the infrastructure they use it would be in the thousands. Car owners seem to think that roads are paid for through some magical non-existent fund, so when you ask them to pay their share they flip out and lose their minds.
Here in Oregon some idiot in state government decided to make a small gas tax increase into a public referendum. As a result our entire state just voted to let all our roads fall apart and we’re estimated to lose 20% of DOT jobs. Once the roads do fall apart I imagine those same “no” voters will get angry that the DOT isn’t doing its job.
The problem is, the gas tax has not kept up with the needs of actually keeping the roads in shape, let alone any externalities of the emissions (and doing so is political suicide). EV owners should pay their fair share, though I dont think they should have to pay it before gas/diesel cars do.
It would make way more sense to have the whole system based on specific vehicles and annual miles traveled (i.e., we know a Honda civic does x amount of damage to the road per mile + y damage to the environment).
The problem is that this still only works at the federal and state level, though. A city that a lot of people commute into doesnt get to tax any of those commuters, so they anyone living in the city would be subsidizing the suburban dwellers (which they are currently doing).
I’m not sure of a good way to correct for that.
As far as I’m aware, the gas tax, or other roadway/vehicle taxes, have never covered the costs of roads. Roads are incredibly subsidized.
I like the idea of applying fees to taking highway off ramps into cities. Urban highways are already a blight, but at the very least we can use these fees to
- Keep traffic flowing. Higher fees mean traffic won’t back up on off ramps, so commuters trying to cross the city can cross it easily, rather than dumping emissions into the city while they idle.
- Reduce car traffic in urban areas. A higher fee will cause commuters to reroute to surface streets, which improves safety on surface streets as more traffic = slower speeds = less death. It also improves hyperlocal economies, as motorists are more likely to stop during their commutes to grab a cup of coffee or some things from the store, versus on the highway where they will gravitate towards strip malls near highway exits. And as traffic gets worse, more people will choose to carpool, take transit, stay home, or move closer to reduce their commutes.
- Fund the retrofitting of urban streets, infrastructure, and transit.
