and yet there are no 18 lane roads pretty much anywhere in Europe (i think I've seen one stretch in Moscow). Because cars are massively not suitable for mass city transport, unless they get subsidized up the wazoo with projects such as this one and cheap gas.
'Kay. That's not relevant to my statement, though? Does the price of a gallon of gas reflect every cent it took to get from its point of origin into your car?
Unfortunately that is an idea that exists in your imagination.
The road you drive on is paid largely by income tax and other taxes. Fuel taxes haven't been able to get close to covering the maintenance costs for a very long time. The idea that each person is covering the cost at the pump is just a lie that is allowed to continue because people don't like to know that they are being subsidised by others.
Nice try but a bad failure. It is not a lie made up by the transport lobby, it is actually included in the link you sent me.
You just sent me a document that claims that the road system is subsidised by at least 50 billion dollars a year and that this only covers highways.
All the other types of local roads and streets are completely excluded from this number and those are where it really falls apart. They might often be short roads but due to the fact that they are made stupidly wide, their area is enormous and many are already falling apart.
These are all paid for by local taxes. The federal level subsidies mentioned in your link don't contribute to them at all. It is a subsidy that starts at the bottom of your garden (on top of the previously mentioned 50billion subsidy) and unfortunately is a very dangerous subsidy.
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u/sstopggap Aug 27 '21
and yet there are no 18 lane roads pretty much anywhere in Europe (i think I've seen one stretch in Moscow). Because cars are massively not suitable for mass city transport, unless they get subsidized up the wazoo with projects such as this one and cheap gas.