We're wrapping up a winter with unusually high snow removal costs. And, we've got an epidemic of potholes that are going to have to be fixed.
This might be a good time to reflect on the fact that maintaining a traffic infrastructure costs serious money and that we expect road conditions that exceed our willingness to pay for them. It's time for a higher gas tax, with a distribution to municipalities for roadway maintenance based on traffic volumes and a significant distribution for transit and other alternative transportation.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Paying for paving
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3 comments:
Higher gas taxes should be used for roadway maintenance/improvement only. If the car driving public is paying it, they should reap the benefits.
Driving has many more "costs" than simply wear and tear on (or even the initial need for) roads and bridges: traffic, noise, safety, &c. One way to mitigate the impact of car travel is to provide robust alternatives.
How about higher petrol taxes to pay for the cost of the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, the wars you are fighting against jihadists recruited and paid for with Saudi oil money, the Paulson-Geithner-Bush-Obama TARP bailouts for housing development driven by absurd U.S. federal transportation policies that stupidly encouraged residential development 40 miles away from job centres, and I haven't even mentioned global climate change ...
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