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Comment by hnburnsy | Hacker News Reader

Kind of the same with the gas taxes which EVs avoid. Gas taxes fund road construction.

Gas taxes only fund about half of road construction because it hasn’t kept pace with inflation. The general fund covers the rest.

Why would only motorists pay for roads if everybody benefits from existance of road transport?

> Why would only motorists pay for roads if everybody benefits from existance of road transport?

Not sure the history in the US of road construction funding, but my understanding is that taxes on vehicle fuel funds the majority of road construction.

States are in acting taxes on EVs to make up for a perceived loss.

Fuel taxes are a minority of road funding.

Taxes, including fuel taxes, directly charged to motorists only make up 53% of the cost of road building and maintenance in the US. Motorists are deeply subsidized by general funds. https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/states-road-funding...

Good info, thx, but states dont want to lose that 40%

It should be included in taxes on the vehicles themselves which then gets priced into the product (just like fuel is currently).

One major difference between the US and EU for example is road taxes just for owning a car. The US kind of has that with registration, but the costs are too low for all vehicle classes.

In the Netherlands, I pay €22/month for my economy car in a road tax that is separate from fuel taxes. If I drive more, then I'll obviously contribute more in fuel taxes. If I had a bigger car, the cost might be €50 or €100/month for a large box truck that causes considerably more wear and tear, even if it doesn't drive as far as I do on my daily commute in the economy car. Registration is included in this cost. If I deregister my vehicle, I stop paying the tax.

I feel this is a better/fairer arrangement for all parties.

The tax should be based on vehicle weight too. Given two cars with the same fuel efficiency, the heavier one should be paying a higher tax still, cube law proportional. Double the weight? Road tax is 8x.

Especially in the US we need stronger discouragement to buying larger vehicles, and since the damage a vehicle does is proportional to the cube of it's weight, we kind of get two birds with one stone.

Taxing (and not subsidizing) EVs more sounds fantastic to me.

Mostly because motorists are the ones that destroy the roads the most. In addition, the roads are rendered un-usable by pedestrians and other vehicles because they are filled with cars.

I am under the impression that it’s trucks that make the most damage. They also deliver goods and supplies that everyone uses.

Trucks do the most damage per mile. But there are about 10 time as many cars on the road per truck. Also cars have gotten WAY heavier recently making road maintenance a nightmare. Also commercial trucks do pay more in taxes than cars.

I would love to see a road use tax. Pretty much turn every road into a toll road then use the money to fund alternatives to driving. Cars are obscenely expensive compared to public transportation and micro-mobility. Stuff like bicycles, e-bikes, and scooters are way cheaper from an infrastructure perspective.

Gas cars should pay an extra tax too because they are way louder and more polluting than electric cars. I can't take a walk without ear plugs lately because of all the modified exhausts and dying elephants trying to cave my skull in.

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