Quote:
Originally Posted by KNS
While a bit off subject - electric cars are using the same roads that gas/diesel cars are using but aren't paying into the maintenance of those roads through the gas tax.
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This is an interesting problem, one I first realized listening to a Freakonomics episode on the dark side of increased fuel economy. Cars are better at doing more damage to roads while paying lower gas taxes. Raising gas taxes isn't appetizing, so we end up with a reduction in available funding to inspect/repair/maintain infrastructure. Electric cars -- which use no gas at all, and thus pay no gas tax -- completely decouple gas from roads, which makes for a sticky wicket indeed. I know that mileage trackers are starting to be used on a test basis, but they're not popular for a variety of reasons.
It'll be interesting to see how this works out. How do we equitably determine who pays what for the roads?