I find it so strange that roads aren't viewed as a public service, and instead should be taxed (regressively) to cover the cost of the road by those using it.
I'm fine paying fully for my own road use, as long as I can stop paying for all the government services I don't use. But as long as the government is taking half of my paycheck, providing me with roads is the bare minimum they could give in return.
You need roads to have a civilization, otherwise you have no way to transport the goods you consume, or get to the hospital quickly, etc. What you're arguing is that you don't like the current implementation.
I don't like the current implementation of medicare / medicaid / social security. It definitely is suboptimal for people's (mental) health, including those in my family. It still comes out of my paycheck. It's also an order of magnitude more than whatever gas taxes and tolls I pay.
That's just the nature of living in a democracy. If everyone paid for exactly the services they used, taxes wouldn't exist.
I just find it curious that people on HN rally against the cost of roads, when they absolutely benefit from the roads being there. Military, SS, or Medicare are services that the average citizen doesn't use at all, and cost much much much more than roads.
It would also be beneficial to incentivize better vehicle choices at the point of sale. Ebikes should be subsidized to the point of being free or nearly so. Other evehicles should be taxed extremely high per pound of mass. A family of four should therefore naturally gravitate toward a compact hatchback over a massive SUV that weighs twice as much like they do today when there is no incentive for getting a smaller vehicle.
Everyone else just accepts that what the system lacks in accounting for private road use, is made up for in simplicity and cheapness of administration.
Hah. Washington state doesn't even test for emissions, let alone do a vehicle inspection.
Also, those aren’t exempted under the current gas tax model anyway, so why bother?
but it's not perfect
(and you are currently exempted from the gax tax model if you have a electric vehicle on private roads / tracks, I doubt too many are affected by this though)
Private roads are irrelevant - electric vehicles don't pay gas tax, that's the point of this whole conversation.
uh, yes?
which wouldn't be the case if we switched to a tax based on an odometer
that's the point of this whole conversation.
Similar stuff for entering and leaving the country.
Not sure how I would approach private roads.
For example, overtaking a cyclist regardless of the fact that you are already approaching a stop junction should result in a fine of at least £10,000.
Tailgating in a dangerous and aggressive manner, £50,000.
From everyday observation, this would raise a few billion in no time at all and price some very stupid and aggressive people off the roads entirely.
Even when caught says on CCTV, there's no guarantee you can find and fine the driver. There are over half a million uninsured cars on the UK streets at any time. Twice that many uninsured drivers. Even getting them to pay for insurance is hard enough, how difficult do you think it'd be to get them to pay £10k fine?
In a lot of cases the fine for having no insurance is lower than the insurance would have cost.
In other words, the system is seriously f*d up and needs to be changed.
the bigger issue is the breadwinner's family will go from middle class to living in poverty. The types that don't pay insurance are not gonna pay court settlement in a timely manner.
If the owner of the car let someone else drive it then it's their issue to resolve.
We just need political will which isn't there. It's not a technical problem to solve.