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C IL | I agree that fuel taxes have been incredible for building our infrastructure, and agree that the 'pAy as you use' concept built in is good economic policy for minimizing external costs.
That said, do trucks pay enough tax to make up for the damage they cause the roads?
The civil and structural engineers I once attended school with pointed out that the point and impact loads from a single semi truck caused order(s)-of-magnitude differences in road damage and stress versus, say, a passenger car. This, of course, under outlier conditions ( saturated roadbeds, etc) where a majority of road wear occurs.
Taking into account fuel mileage and different tax rates on diesel vs gas, do trucks pay enough tax towards road maintenance? Or perhaps, if the truth were known, do they subsidize the roads for the rest of us? Anybody knowledgeable in that area?
When I travel on toll roads, semis pay up to 10-20x the toll rates as a regular cars. I would assume that is based on some reasonable cost recovery and not on a marketing revenue maximization scheme.
If regulatory or other hurdles have stymied investment in rail, to the detriment of us all, that is a shame. | |
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some new way of shipping
