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>just as road usage does That's not true, car taxes and taxes on mineral oil paid by car owners are more than enough to pay for the infrastructure they use.

• musicale 3y ago
  > car taxes and taxes on mineral oil paid by car owners are more than enough to pay for the infrastructure they use. The highest amount (71%) seems to be in Hawaii: https://taxfoundation.org/states-road-funding-2019/ https://taxfoundation.org/states-road-funding-2019/ Gas tax revenue will likely continue to drop due to improvements in fuel efficiency and increased adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles.
  • _0ffh 3y ago
    This was about Germany, not the US. According to a study drivers pay ~200% of what they "consume" for normal roads and about ~400% for the "autobahn".
    • distances 3y ago
      What do you mean with this? Drivers don't pay separately for basic roads and autobahn so how can they be accounted separately?
      • _0ffh 3y ago
        Good question. The study by the DIW was broken by FT Germany and some quotes found their way to other news outlets, but I can't find the original study so I can't comment much on their methodology. What I can say is that at least there are different usage and resulting deterioration patterns for the different types of roads, for which statistics exist. Also, for the autobahn there exists an additional source of income, which is tolls for trucks above 7.5 tons.
    • musicale 3y ago
      Indeed. It's interesting how different it is in the US vs. Germany, isn't it?
• opportune 3y ago
  Per https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TLHWYCONS https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TLHWYCONS we are spending about 120b per year on highways and roads. Per https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/motor-fuel-taxes https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiative... state and local fuel tax revenues are about $55b and per https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_Sta... federal fuel tax revenues are about $40b. These figures are from different years and I don’t know how to get aggregate estimates of various other vehicle fees and taxes less government administrative costs, but assuming it’s about $100 per car you are right that the fuel revenues seem to be enough to fund roads. Still, I see private vs public transit as a collective action problem leading to a local, non-global optimum: in aggregate we are still spending a lot on private transit, and when public transit is poorly funded in a particular area you have little choice but to choose private transit, which creates a negative feedback loop on multiple levels (incremental increases in public transit funding have little effect because they’re not enough to ditch a car, new development is dispersed and car-dependent). In my opinion, being all but forced to pay for private transit out of pocket is not much different from being forced to pay for public transit through taxes. Heavy public transit vs heavy private transit is never going to be an apples-to-apples comparison because each has pros and cons (especially when considered systemically) and distinct cost structures. But personally even with a high tax rate that ends up paying for more public transit than I consume, I prefer the systemic outcomes of high public transit funding compared to private transit and deliberately choose to live in an area with that so I can forego car ownership.
  • _0ffh 3y ago
    Add to that, that in Germany fuel taxes are crazy high in comparison to the US.