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We need to start taxing vehicles based on the damage they are responsible for. The 4th Power Law is a principle in road engineering that states that the damage

We need to start taxing vehicles based on the damage they are responsible for. The 4th Power Law is a principle in road engineering that states that the damage a vehicle causes to a road surface is proportional to the fourth power of its axle load. This means that even small increases in axle load can cause exponentially greater damage to the road. A Prius causes about 50,000 times more damage than a bicycle. A truck causes 16 billion times more damage than a bicycle. A truck causes 31,000 times more damage than a Prius.

okr 2y ago
We built roads mainly for trucks. Because this infrastructure ensures, that we have food in the supermarkets, material on the construction sites and in worst case, tanks quickly in the areas needed. So if it was me, trucks can use the streets for free all day long and tax me for that, to build and maintain this infrastructure. But for private leisure like biking an extra pathway, no thanks, they can pay for that themselves. Its nice to have.
- saurik 2y ago
  Those trucks are doing things for people, and different people cause different amounts of trucks. If you have some cool use case for a ton of trucks--as a consumer, buying a kind of product or service that causes trucks to go back and forth to satisfy your interests--you should bear more of the cost of maintaining the roads for those trucks than I do, or you get a tragedy of the commons where the cost of constantly rebuilding roads is thrown at everyone and no one is incentivized to lower their use of trucks.
  - BizarroLand 2y ago
    There are well over 300,000,000 million people in America, each needing food, clothing, and entertainment in order to be productive members of society. The sheer number of humans necessitates the existence of trucks. The fairytale alternative that some people spout where everyone walks or uses bicycles and roads last forever is perfect as long as almost everyone dies first. Either that or the world as we know it must be destroyed so that this fictional better one can take its place.
    - saurik 2y ago
      While we all do need trucks, some people and some businesses cause the need for more trucks than other people. Just because something is provided by government doesn't entirely divorce it from capitalism.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  Bike paths get people to drive less, saving road maintenance money.
dzhiurgis 2y ago
Interesting you've omitted buses. My math says they cost more than an uber. But otherwise - just like sibling said - roads are already built for trucks... I guess then we should give discounts to light cars?
stuaxo 2y ago
Maybe you'll start getting trucks with more wheels to compensate (in urban areas). Or just smaller vehicles for the last mile.
JohnFen 2y ago
In many (most?) states, large trucks are taxed on this basis.
- afiori 2y ago
  Do they pay proportionally to the 4th power of their weight?
  - toomuchtodo 2y ago
    https://truecostblog.com/2009/06/02/the-hidden-trucking-industry-subsidy/ https://truecostblog.com/2009/06/02/the-hidden-trucking-indu... > Freight trucks cause 99% of wear-and-tear on US roads, but only pay for 35% of the maintenance. This $60B subsidy causes extra congestion and pollution, and taxpayers pay the bill. > It seems obvious that the heavier the vehicle, the more damage it does to roads over time. A 40,000 pound big rig probably does a bit more damage than your average 3500 pound consumer vehicle, right? It turns out that vehicle road damage doesn’t rise linearly with weight. Road damage rises with the fourth power of weight, and this means that a 40,000 pound truck does roughly 10,000 times more damage to roadways than the average car [1]! > In other words, one fully loaded 18-wheeler does the same damage to a road as 9600 cars. According to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the trucking industry represents 11% of all vehicles on the road in the US, while paying 35% of all highway taxes. But if trucks represent 11% of vehicles, their heavy loads cause them to do 99% of all road damage! [2] The trucking industry paid $35 Billion in highway taxes in 2005, according to the ATA. Since most of the $100 Billion in highway taxes paid goes to maintenance (and US infrastructure maintenance is far behind), this implies that the trucking industry receives a $60 Billion annual subsidy from other drivers. Numbers are old, but extrapolate truck miles, dollars, and damage accordingly.

okr 2y ago

We built roads mainly for trucks. Because this infrastructure ensures, that we have food in the supermarkets, material on the construction sites and in worst case, tanks quickly in the areas needed. So if it was me, trucks can use the streets for free all day long and tax me for that, to build and maintain this infrastructure. But for private leisure like biking an extra pathway, no thanks, they can pay for that themselves. Its nice to have.

saurik 2y ago
Those trucks are doing things for people, and different people cause different amounts of trucks. If you have some cool use case for a ton of trucks--as a consumer, buying a kind of product or service that causes trucks to go back and forth to satisfy your interests--you should bear more of the cost of maintaining the roads for those trucks than I do, or you get a tragedy of the commons where the cost of constantly rebuilding roads is thrown at everyone and no one is incentivized to lower their use of trucks.
- BizarroLand 2y ago
  There are well over 300,000,000 million people in America, each needing food, clothing, and entertainment in order to be productive members of society. The sheer number of humans necessitates the existence of trucks. The fairytale alternative that some people spout where everyone walks or uses bicycles and roads last forever is perfect as long as almost everyone dies first. Either that or the world as we know it must be destroyed so that this fictional better one can take its place.
  - saurik 2y ago
    While we all do need trucks, some people and some businesses cause the need for more trucks than other people. Just because something is provided by government doesn't entirely divorce it from capitalism.
JohnFen 2y ago
Bike paths get people to drive less, saving road maintenance money.

dzhiurgis 2y ago

Interesting you've omitted buses. My math says they cost more than an uber. But otherwise - just like sibling said - roads are already built for trucks... I guess then we should give discounts to light cars?

stuaxo 2y ago

Maybe you'll start getting trucks with more wheels to compensate (in urban areas). Or just smaller vehicles for the last mile.

JohnFen 2y ago

In many (most?) states, large trucks are taxed on this basis.

afiori 2y ago
Do they pay proportionally to the 4th power of their weight?
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  https://truecostblog.com/2009/06/02/the-hidden-trucking-industry-subsidy/ https://truecostblog.com/2009/06/02/the-hidden-trucking-indu... > Freight trucks cause 99% of wear-and-tear on US roads, but only pay for 35% of the maintenance. This $60B subsidy causes extra congestion and pollution, and taxpayers pay the bill. > It seems obvious that the heavier the vehicle, the more damage it does to roads over time. A 40,000 pound big rig probably does a bit more damage than your average 3500 pound consumer vehicle, right? It turns out that vehicle road damage doesn’t rise linearly with weight. Road damage rises with the fourth power of weight, and this means that a 40,000 pound truck does roughly 10,000 times more damage to roadways than the average car [1]! > In other words, one fully loaded 18-wheeler does the same damage to a road as 9600 cars. According to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the trucking industry represents 11% of all vehicles on the road in the US, while paying 35% of all highway taxes. But if trucks represent 11% of vehicles, their heavy loads cause them to do 99% of all road damage! [2] The trucking industry paid $35 Billion in highway taxes in 2005, according to the ATA. Since most of the $100 Billion in highway taxes paid goes to maintenance (and US infrastructure maintenance is far behind), this implies that the trucking industry receives a $60 Billion annual subsidy from other drivers. Numbers are old, but extrapolate truck miles, dollars, and damage accordingly.