Driving Takes Its Toll

However, since just about all of the cargo that commercial trucks transport ultimately end up as consumer goods anyway, every American that buys food or any other item is going to pay anyway, except for some items that are transported long haul by rail, and then delivered locally by truck.

But it's not the same. If the truckers paid the full cost for their use of the roads, more goods would move by rail, which is cheaper for heavy freight. Furthermore, by the socialist subsidy of long haul trucking, we make imported goods cheaper to haul from port to point-of-sale, and locally manufactured goods are disadvantaged.

To get even deeper into the 'costs' of these roads is to not so much look at the tax/income finance side as the cost side. Hack politicians with their pay off construction buddies and over priced under performing union workers. Let's accept the notion that only 30 percent of the road cost are covered by user fees. How much do you think the roads are over priced? For instance the Big Dig in Boston started at under 3 billion dollars. Now it is near 15 billion, and falling apart.

If there had been a "Big Dig Toll Authority", which had to float bonds to finance it, and had to collect tolls to pay for the bonds, I believe that costs would have been better controlled. Otherwise the bond rating agencies like Standard & Poors and Moody's would have made their financing untenable.

Without the discipline of the capital marketplace, and with the ability to spread the cost overruns across the United States taxpayers coast-to-coast, there was no incentive to limit spending overruns.

I'm not sure whether there is a toll on the Ted Williams tunnel part of the Big Dig. If not, there should be. If there is, the US taxpayer should get a return of his capital.

Do you really think those high fuel taxes *only* pay for roads, in Europe? I'm doubtful, but honestly don't know.

And higher taxes on diesel, than gas, would effectively shift the maintenance burden where it belongs.

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