How about we taxpayers wise up rather than allow politicians to increase taxes to maintain roads in Illinois and the USA?
The Chicago Tribune article titled, Readers Milage Tax: How about we scrap road taxes altogether, a thought provocation article of different opinions about how to pay for road repairs. My accolades to the writer to report different opinions to oppose Illinois politicians’ proposals.
The problem is how to increase costs to both drivers and non-drivers to pay for the shortfall of road-maintained funding by use of gas taxes due to higher gas MPG and hesitancy of politicians to increase gas taxes for fear of upsetting voters and reducing their chances of being re-elected.
However, there are two reasons why roads wear out that were not addressed or suggested in the article.
- What is the biggest factor of road wear?
- What can be done to reduce this factor?
The Purpose of this Post
To tell the truth of physics to explain why roads wear and will continue to wear until such time as every taxpayer gets fed up and demands the USA political leaders wake up. Wake up to think long-term rather than short-term solutions to solve transportation and road problems. In other words, instead of figuring out new ways to increase revenue to be paid by taxpayers
King Solomon
The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. (Proverb 22:3)
Definition of Prudent for Purpose of this Post
acting with or showing care and thought for the future. (Source HERE)
What’s My Point?
All of the proposed solution opinions in the Chicago Tribune article only address short, rather than long-term suggestions.
What is causing roads to wear out in the first place, according to the laws of physics is the weight of vehicles, use, and use of asphalt instead of concrete. Of course, asphalt is less costly to maintain roadways, but what about the weight of vehicles?
How about doing what is more prudent in the long term which is to ship more freight via piggyback rail instead of long-haul heavier and heavier truck traffic, and more wear on roads.
While more piggyback is being used, the reason it has not used more is that it takes longer to ship vial rail because of a number of reasons. All reasons why it takes longer relates to one reason only. In the USA, politicians do not think long term, except of course to remain in office long term.
What to Do, In My Opinion?
In the short term, use what has been the most successful prudent and truthful method used that contributed to the success of American Enterprise. Subsidize to expedite more pragmatic solutions for the future not for the present.
For example, allow railroads long-term interest-free government loans to invest in equipment to ship via rail faster than trucks.
In the short term, raise fees exponentially on all trucks to pay the true costs of wearing out roads because of truck and freight wear on roadways. The higher the costs to transport, the sooner private enterprise will invest in more efficient ways to ship via rail instead of long-haul trucks.
Give incentives to buyers of electric vehicles or alternate environmental fuels to both help they pay the higher costs for the vehicles or fuels.
Give incentives to trucks that have more axels to disperse the weight of their load on the pavement which will reduce road maintenance.
There are numerous other for examples, too long to list or explain on a blog.
Although trucks pay higher license fees than cars, taxpayers are subsidizing the true costs of highway maintenance and the true cost of goods being transported.
We need to elect pragmatic legislators who have the common sense to understand that there is more in life than being re-elected
Every professional purchasing agent knows that the cheapest cost is not the most prudent decision for long-term interests.
If Interested
Read the Source Links below which contain some of the following Excerpts.
You Decide
Are long-term wiser more pragmatic solutions a better choice than raising taxes over and over and over again?
Should more physics teachers be elected in Congress to replace lawyer politicians?
Wise or Foolish Post?
Regards and good will blogging.
Source Links
Chicago Tribune Articles
Excerpts
Asphalt roads wear more than concrete roads, but many countries are replacing concrete roads with asphalt because it is cheaper, despite concrete roads having some major advantages. Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the different road paving surfaces in this article.
The strength required and damage inflicted. High volumes of heavy vehicles imply higher road and bridge construction standards and costs than lighter vehicles.
A big steel box carries about as much as a 53-foot trailer but doesn’t have the weight of axles, brakes, wheels and tires, suspensions, and landing gear. Moreover, containers can be double stacked, theoretically doubling the amount of cargo carried by a train of a given length, and all the efficiencies that implies.
You may have heard railroad commercials bragging that trains can move a ton of freight more than 450 miles on a gallon of fuel. What they don’t tell you is that, in 1980, that distance was only 235 miles. While freight trains have doubled fuel efficiency over the past few decades, tractor-trailers remain nearly as inefficient as they were in the 1970s. The average semi got 5.6 miles per gallon in 1973, and today that has improved to just 6.5 miles. (The American Trucking Association did not respond to a request for comment.)
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