BIKE: Taxing Cars by the mile

[Roger Baker]

On Nov 18, 2004, at 8:23 PM, Bob Sessa wrote:

> Roger,
>  
> Thanks for the article.  For those that don't know me, I try to frame 
> issues in a business (god forbid capitalist argument;  as a side note 
> I do believe in the "markets" assuming all the costs are factored 
> in---but that is the problem most costs are not in the model.  FYI - 
> Bush is not a capitalist - he favors subsidies for the elite and old 
> industries;  Unfortunately, the Dems do not know how to hit back at 
> the Republicans on this issue).
>  
> The problem with our current transportation system is that is socially 
> based.  People put money in a big pot and then the government 
> allocates the transportation resources.  People are not charged the 
> true cost of driving....hence our clogged freeways.
>  
>   We should charge people by the amount of space they take up on the 
> road, wear and tear to the road, and time of day used.  Once people 
> see the true cost of building all those roads, we would all push for 
> different forms of transportation (mass transit, bikes, etc.).
>  
> Bob

Actually the big picture is that TxDOT is now using about all its gas 
tax money on maintenance alone (TxDOT and the road lobby might be lying 
about this to some degree, but it is approximately true) so there are 
soon going to be a lot of hungry road contractors unless something 
fundamental changes.

Texas is taking the toll road approach to try to keep building roads as 
usual, whereas California is trying more creative approaches like this 
electronic gadgetry to charge drivers by the mile, but its 
fundamentally the same shortfall problem in nearly every sprawling 
metro area. They built a lot of roads in the last few decades without 
considering the very high upkeep costs and now these costs are about to 
eat their lunch big time. It costs as much to maintain a road for 30 
years or so as to build a new road, with the cost balloon coming toward 
the end, hitting urban roads built in the 1970's now, etc.

One approach would be to tar and feather all the Governor's political 
appointees that got us into this sorry short-sighted mess. But these 
guys are part of the most powerful special interest lobby in Texas. 
Therefore the politics demands that current road users will have to be 
heavily taxed somehow to try to continue business as usual.

As the Murray Duffin piece I posted recently concludes (try the many 
links at the end of his piece for a wealth of supportive data), the 
price of gasoline is going to rise sharply for as far as we can see 
into the future. I think this is the real reason why TxDOT wants to get 
its toll roads started as soon as possible using deficit spending.

If they don't get the toll roads started very soon, there are not going 
to be any Wall Street bond houses stupid enough to front the money for 
the tax free municipal bonds having thirty and forty year maturities. I 
think they are having doubts now with all the news of peak oil in the 
business press.

Aside for SH 45 SE and US 183A locally, I think the road lobby has 
probably already missed the cheap gasoline window of road bonding 
opportunity.  If the price of gasoline EVER exceeds $2.50 per gallon, 
the bonds are doomed, according to TxDOT's own bond consultants. We'll 
probably know a lot more by this time next year.  -- Roger