bmthom.gis

I did see that as well. Georgia passed a $200 fee for owners of such vehicles. We can't have nice things, apparently.

indyfabz

I am a bit confused by this. I either walk or ride to work. It's less than a two mile trip, so I would never drive. Do I deserve some sort of credit against car registration because I am not using my feet to get to work even though I would never use my car? If so, why should it be limited to travel to and from work? Let's say I decide to go to dinner and movie with my partner. We would never consider driving and instead walk or ride. Do I get a credit in that situation?

indyfabz

My point was that it is not simply red states. NJ is also looking to change the way it raises money for highways by getting rid of the gas tax and replacing it with a miles driven tax to make account for higher mileage vehicles.

bmthom.gis

Right...but it is definitely more prevalent in the red states (and I think SC shot it down). Not to make it a political thing. I live in SC and just happen to pay more attention to what happens in the red states. Sure, low taxes are great - but they have to raise revenue somehow, so while certain taxes are low (like property tax), other ones are high (like a yearly tax on my car).

I like the idea of miles driven over a gas tax. I think Oregon is doing a pilot program of 1.5 cents/mile. My only concern about that will states take into consideration out of state driving? If I am traveling from SC to Baltimore, most of that trip will not be in SC, therefore I shouldn't have to pay the state of SC for those miles.

mconlonx

Cycling to work is its own reward. No gas, no mileage on a vehicle, generally free parking. Multitasking a workout with your commute to work. When I lived in a city, it was a shorter commute than either a car or public transit.

kickstart

But how well would that work if implemented before there are viable options to POVs for many in not most people?

Daniel4

In this day and age, I believe you should be rewarded for walking. The money invested would be off-set multiple times more from the savings in healthcare and road repairs.

02Giant 

They should, they use the roads without paying road use tax.

genec

What road use tax?

02Giant 

The tax that is part of the price of every gallon of gas purchased.

genec

Gas tax... not road use tax.

The only folks that pay road use tax are long haul truckers.

bmthom.gis

Road use taxes are generally payed with property taxes and other local taxes.

02Giant 

The Road Use Tax Fund is principally derived from vehicle fuel taxes and registration fees, ie gas tax.

Gresp15C

They could have a tax per mile, per pound, which is what causes roads to deteriorate. Then they could extend it to bikes. Solved.

Matariki

Agree. Incentivizing is just another way to say manipulating. There is just no way for the government to manipulate things in a way that optimizes benefits. They do try, but what happens is an unanticipated balance shift away from some programs that are darn good toward those that may be detrimental in the long run. I cringe every time asks the government to step in. The hand on the tiller is just not steady enough to make it work. A free market is a scary thing for most people, but it would work if we could tolerate the casualties.

Also, cycling provides sufficient intrinsic incentive to continue. Kinda selfish to propose getting more for something that you would do anyway.

ciderguy

In the US we already have the Bicycle Commuting Reimbursement that allows the employer to give the employee up to $20/month tax free. I know the UK has a cycle-to-work scheme, but I haven't read much about it. I would like to see more local laws that encouraged businesses to provide bike parking. In my local community, we have a good bit of bike path that I enjoy traveling along for rides and I can even take it most of the way to the nearby mall. However, there are frequently not places to lock my bike up once I arrive.

wphamilton

Logical and fair.

We should also keep in mind that wear on the roads increases with the cube of the axle weight. So a vehicle which weighs ten times as much does one thousand times the damage, and should pay one thousand times as much tax. Per mile. That would be even more fair.

ItsJustMe

Which pays for interstate expressways, not the vast majority of roads, which are paid for by property and other taxes.

If you really want to fairly charge people based on what their actions really cost, every gallon of gasoline would have taxes that would pay for building roads, paying for policing, paying for remediation of pollution, storm drains that are needed since so much of the land is paved now and rain doesn't just soak into the ground, pay for a portion of everyone's health care costs caused by pollution, pay for the EPA, pay for everything else that burning that gallon of gasoline actually costs. I'm sure a gallon of gasoline would be at least $10 then.

Instead, we use a mainly socialist model where the government collects taxes and then divvies up money from the general funds to pay for the roads, the police, sanitation, sewers, ambulance services, public buildings, etc.

genec

Bu... but... that's soshalism...

Daniel4

Which isn't so bad. It's time that North America catches up with the rest of the world in terms of social responsibility. Yes we do have to accept paying more for stuff in order to address the maintenance of their detrimental effects. Otherwise we'll be paying in other less desirable ways. Many of the best democratic countries in the world to live have high taxes and their economies aren't collapsing.

Hokiedad4

The purpose of taxes is to raise sufficient revenue for the government to provide services. The simplest and most efficient method of paying for roads is the gas tax. Registration fees should only need to cover the cost of administering auto registration.

I completely oppose mileage taxes such as OR and WA have (not red states, last I checked). And I oppose tax incentives of all kinds, such a EV credits, which are nothing but subsidies paid directly to the EV manufacturers (crony capitalism).

I'm perfectly content that cyclists, as of yet, pay no registration fees and of course do not have to pay a gas tax for riding a bike. And in many communities, we enjoy the benefit of a few extra feet of asphalt along the side of the road for use by bikes. These bike lanes cost practically nothing and are a huge benefit to the community by reducing auto usage, and improving the quality of our neighborhoods.

So instead of whining for more tax gimmicks, let's count our blessings and continue to support local efforts to make biking safer for everyone.

genec

The problem is that the gas tax has never been enough to do the job... thus income tax, sales tax and property taxes are often tapped to make up the difference. Fact is that for the most part, all the taxes go into a huge bucket, and then budgets are made, and draw from the bucket as needed.

But bottom line, gas tax does not pay entirely for the roads... and gas itself is a subsidized commodity. European drivers pay closer to the true amount for the cost of gas.

Seattle Forrest

Whether you get a break on your car insurance or not is between you and your insurance company. Many of them will in fact give you a discount if your car is a pleasure vehicle and not used for daily commuting; others will lower your premium when you drive less miles, because you're taking less risk.

I think the money you save on gasoline will be more than any registration fee for your bike. You're coming out ahead already.

Seattle Forrest

You should at least have some idea what you're talking about before you say something and pretend to other people that it's true.

kickstart

Yes, anything can be defeated with enough knowledge and effort, thank you captain obvious.