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Heavier vehicles still significantly underpay if road maintenance is funded by gas taxes alone, since wear and tear increases in proportion to the fourth power
by tfehring 3y ago
Heavier vehicles still significantly underpay if road maintenance is funded by gas taxes alone, since wear and tear increases in proportion to the fourth power of weight [0] while gas usage only increases linearly or so.
Of course, higher taxes on the heaviest vehicles would just mean higher prices on consumer goods, so this mostly ends up as a subsidy to consumption.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
- SoftTalker 3y agoHeavier vehicles use more fuel. A semi truck gets single-digit MPG.
- thfuran 3y agoAnd they can have an axle weight of 20,000 pounds vs about 3,000 for an SUV, meaning they do nearly 2,000 times as much damage to the road. Unless your car gets about 10,000 mpg, the gas tax isn't cutting it.
- SoftTalker 3y agoBig trucks also pay a lot of other road taxes that passenger cars don't. All those stickers and tags that they all have to display, all come with a fee. I'm not claiming that they pay a "fair share" proportionate to the wear on the roads but they already do pay a lot more than other vehicles.
- thfuran 3y agoThey may pay enough extra taxes and fees to cover the road wear, but the gas tax absolutely doesn't cover it.