Quote:
Originally Posted by cashflyer
Bull. I owned a small O/O trucking company, and the registration fees and the road taxes I paid on heavy trucks were absolutely higher than any car.
I am aware of that. So let them drive their cars, and quit impeding traffic.
So, ~27% of road funding comes from general taxation. Show me a chart that shows exactly how much money one bicyclist contributed to the road funding, and why he should be allowed to impede everyone else on the road.
Most people are taught as children that they should not play in the road.
Bicycles belong in a bike lane, paid for by bicyclists. Or on a bike path.
Not on a highway.
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The wear and tear on the roadway caused by a truck is far higher than that caused by a car. One 18 wheeler is equivalent to 9,600 cars.
http://archive.gao.gov/f0302/109884.pdf From that point of view, your per-truck fees/taxes were far too low.
As for impeding traffic, a single vehicle may impede traffic hugely or not at all - think grandpa in his RV, grandma in her Olds, you in your trucks - so it doesn't make any sense to expect fees/taxes to be calibrated to how much a single driver in his vehicle impedes traffic. (Although then Porsche owners might pay zero.) You have to look at the impact of a class of vehicles. As a class, bicycles make very little contribution to traffic congestion and essentially none to road wear and tear, and they can reduce traffic congestion by taking cars off the road.
For example, one a given weekday in summer, very roughly 25,000 people bicycle commute into downtown Portland (appx 16,000 to 20,000 over bridges, the rest over land). That is 25,000 fewer cars clogging the streets and parking spaces. The drivers who grumble about bike commuters fail to consider how much slower the traffic would be with 25,000 more cars crammed into the streets.