BIKE: "States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile"

[John SomdeCerff]

I think charging by the mile makes a lot of sense for semi trucks.  A 
fully loaded truck causes about 8,000 times the damage to the roads as a 
car.  The only reasonable way to "level the playing field" is to make 
them pay for the damage they inflict.  The good side effects of such a 
policy would be to reduce taxes for everybody else, helping local 
farmers and manufacturers by stopping the subsidized hauling of food and 
goods from far away, encourage hauling freight on railroads that were 
designed for the weight, reduce congestion, and increase safety.

The expense of implementing this "by the mile tax" vs a simple gas tax 
for cars suggests that gas taxes make more sense.  If the more fuel 
efficient cars reduce the income, simple raise the tax per gallon.  This 
would ENCOURAGE efficiency instead of subsidizing the fuel wasters.  
I've read that the "hidden costs" of burning gasoline are about 
$1/gallon.  This tells me that gas taxes should be more than $1/gallon.  
When I moved here I was amazed to find out that roads are built with 
property taxes instead of gas taxes.  It makes no sense to me - I have 
to pay for roads even if I don't drive.

In general I'm OK with toll roads since the users pay for it.  The 
problems with these particular tolls roads include that the roads have 
already been paid for and that the plan is to borrow a huge amount of 
money to build a lot of roads when cheaper alternatives make more sense.

Jay Paulson wrote:

>Maybe this is a better alternative than toll roads?  Just think they build
>the toll roads and then implement this.  Not only are we going to get
>taxed twice on some of the planned toll roads but this would be we get
>taxed THREE times! AH!
>
>(This idea in the article is being tested in Oregon and California is
>looking at it closely)
>
>Taken from:
>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/14/eveningnews/main674120.shtml
>
>(CBS) College student Jayson Just commutes an odometer-spinning 2,000
>miles a month. As CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports, his
>monthly gas bill once topped his car payment.
>
>"I was paying about $500 a month," says Just.
>  
>
$500 = 250 gal
2,000 miles / 250 gal = 8 mpg. 
Sounds unlikely to me. 
Still driving 100 miles per day in congestion seems like huge waste of 
time.  The $800 or so a month he was paying, plus the money he could be 
making by working the 40 hours a month he spends in his car if he 
averages 50 mph ($800 at $5/hr), plus the car insurance and maintenance 
expenses, could pay the rent on a decent place next to his school.

Lets charge the trucks for the 90+% of the road damage they inflict, pay 
the remaining 10% with gasoline taxes, and use the other $1/gal to 
reduce our property taxes.  Simple, easy, just, and economically sound.