BIKE: Trucking Impacts (Was: "States Mull Taxing Drivers By Mile")

[Jeb Boyt]

----Original Message Follows----
From: John SomdeCerff <jsomdecerff>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 18:48:55 -0600

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.  . . .
. . .

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.
------------------------------------------

I generally agree with this.  I was recently in Croatia and was surprised 
that their roads were in so much better shape than ours.  Part of that is 
due to recent investments, but part is also due to the requirement that 
truck trailers have three axels instead of two.  A third axel increases 
costs for trucking companies, but it lessens the impact of trucks on the 
roads by distributing the load more evenly.

This is an easy fix that Congress could require, putting a bit more of the 
cost for maintaining our highway system on the trucking companies that 
benefit from our highways instead of on the taxpayers as a whole.

Jeb