Taxing Driving

I'm a bit confused as to how it is that people fail to comprehend how much "big government" makes their driving possible. Roads are a much bigger infrastructure investment by the government than is public/mass transit. But riders of trains and buses pay a fare. Only a very small fraction of roads have tolls, and only a small fraction of parking is metered.

There are many proposed fixes to make drivers pay their share. There are three I feel are fair. One is more metered parking, and higher rates where it does exist. Another is a significantly higher gas tax (at least $1/gal. if not $2). And a final one is "congestion pricing" which is hinted at in this generally not good article. But that article lists one of the worst ideas out there, and pushes another. It is a wonder that such a thoughtless individual could be a professor of any level at any credible university.

First off: public-private partnerships only work if something can be made profitable. We have roads all over this country, but only a few areas of the nation have enough population to support an expensive piece of infrastructure. Bridges and tunnels through mountains, over gorges, under rivers/bays, are not cheap, but while a new tunnel between Jersey and NYC could recover enough in tolls after maybe a decade, a simple bridge over a stream in the middle of Wyoming may not ever be able to do so. This may mean that we shouldn't build that bridge, but maybe it means the government should use profits from NYC workers to help maintain roads servicing ranchers in WY.

Second: mileage taxes are a bad, bad, bad, horrible, awful idea. This is for two reasons: one is invasion of privacy. If I pay cash for a train ticket the government doesn't know that I took the train, but to do the mileage tax, there would need to be a GPS bug in my car tracking my every move. I don't want that, neither do most people (including any libertarian worth their salt, and even most tea partiers). Second: a "mileage" tax would require a whole new mess of infrastructure to monitor and assess, but there is already an existing tax stream which already does pretty much the exact same thing: the gas tax.

A gas tax is a mileage tax, but it is also a road damage tax and even a carbon tax. The more you drive the more you pay. The heavier your vehicle, the more gas you burn per mile, the more you pay. The more you idle your car in bumper to bumper rush hour traffic, the more you pay. Hybrids are certainly advantaged here but hybrids cause less damage to roads and contribute less carbon to the atmosphere. Still, if you want more out of hybrid drivers' pockets, just raise the gas tax until they feel it.