On Jun 8, 9:50 am, Bolwerk wrote:
rotten wrote:
On Jun 7, 5:30 pm, Dane Buson wrote:
In rec.bicycles.misc rotten wrote:

On Jun 7, 1:25 pm, Dane Buson wrote:
In rec.bicycles.misc rotten wrote:
On Jun 7, 10:52 am, Bolwerk wrote:
I don't know what it means for "nobody" to "subsidize anybody else's
transportation." Depending where you live and if you drive, your
transportation is probably subsidized by all kinds of people, places,
and funding schemes, ranging from gas taxes to direct federal
appropriations.
User fees as much as possible.
So, you're talking about $7-13 a gallon gas? Or perhaps every road will
become a toll road? Of course we could also install a GPS box and tax
you for miles driven. Alternately we could charge people based on
odometer readings when you register every year. [1]
I also look forward to the Sneaker Tax. Of course this will have to be
built into the cost of the shoes. Perhaps we'll call it something like
Very Appreciable Travel and tack it onto the cost of all travel related
goods.
[1] I'm sure no one will stop their odometer, falsify it, or fail to
register their car to avoid paying...
Calm down little man, I don't think it's reasonable to charge for
walking or whatever, obviously on a local level not everything will be
able to be paid for on that basis. Sheesh, people get so angry.
Angry? I'm sorry if I came off that way. I was being mildly sarcastic,
but not at all angry. Perhaps I should have added the odd ;-) in there.

I'm actually in favour of user fees in many cases, especially roads
which have historically been subsidized heavily by property tax and
general funds. Of course the problem with user fees is getting people
to agree to cough up the money up front.

When you have to pay the full cost at every use, people often balk. You
can see the same effect in many places in life.

ex. Someone who would hesitate if you made them pay $1000 for a year of
coffee has no problem with paying $3-4 multiple times a week.

--
Dane Buson -
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it
were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
-- H. L. Mencken

User fees for roads would not even be close to $7-$8 per gallon, I
remember seeing that existing gas taxes already cover around 50% of
the cost of roads, with tolls and excise taxes making up around half
of the rest.

What are you including in the "cost of roads"? Just maintenance? How
about emergency services? Patrol? Externalities? Only major highways?
What about ancillary routes? Local roads? New construction?

If you pick all of the above, I doubt $7-8 would cover it really.

You must be joking. The gas tax already covers the fees for like 50%
of road expenditures. And tolls and excise taxes covers close to half
the rest. There's a good website out there which provides total
statistics on how roads are funded. Fully funding with user fees
wouldn't be close to $7-8 dollars a gallon.