Question for those who live in California

[scootr]

New road tolls for Sacramento, CA approved by a California commission.

Although it is a paid-toll lane, there is already a clamor for "equity" of tolled road usage ... here we go again.

California commission approved new I-80 toll lanes. Could you be charged $1 per mile?

A Yolo County official said lanes similar to those approved on I-80 charge drivers $1 per mile.

www.yahoo.com

CA is reporting a loss of road tax revenue due to the push for electric vehicles. Additional gas tax will be implemented to make up the lost funds. New road tolls do not surprise me. Glad we do not have toll roads in our rural area.

 

[plowhog]

Glad we do not have toll roads in our rural area.

Agreed that being rural helps. Hope it continues to hold against the continued creativity in the quest for $$.

 

[kenmbz]

Tolls in NJ and NY went up while saying how the poor should use Mass transit, while reducing the funding to Mass transit and building wider roads and working to raise the cost of mass transit. All while raising the gas tax and parking at the train stations.

Being working poor in this area has gotten more expensive.

 

[ericm979]

CA is reporting a loss of road tax revenue due to the push for electric vehicles. Additional gas tax will be implemented to make up the lost funds. New road tolls do not surprise me. Glad we do not have toll roads in our rural area.

They're going to run a pilot for charging by mileage: About Road Charge | California Road Charge

Gas taxes fund a lot of the road budget so they need to do something. Fuel taxes are a great way to fund roads because not only do people who drive more pay more, but people with heavier vehicles pay more (roughly). Road damage goes up as the fourth power of vehicle weight. Current EVs are often heavier than the equivalent gas vehicle and should pay more for road maintenance, not less.

However I don't want the state or a private company tracking my driving. This could be done in a privacy-preserving way but that's extremely unlikely.

 

[kenmbz]

More road taxes punishes the people who can least afford them and squeezes even the middle class.
Better, cheaper mass transit helps more, but we get more and wider highways instead.

Seems like the oil company profits are up quite a bit, wonder why

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/business/oil-gas-companies-profits.html

 

[lman]

There is no Mass Transit here, I hope I'm not paying for it.

 

[scootr]

IN short EVs are doing more damage with their increased weight and paying zero road use tax through gasoline purchases. Seems to me an annual road access tax may be appropriate by weight. The same way you pay higher registration for a 1 ton truck vs a car now

 

[ericm979]

IN short EVs are doing more damage with their increased weight and paying zero road use tax through gasoline purchases. Seems to me an annual road access tax may be appropriate by weight. The same way you pay higher registration for a 1 ton truck vs a car now

Oregon does that. EVs pay more for annual registration than cars of the same size.

 

[scootr]

Right - hit them with a weight fee and no gas tax. Lets be fair

 

[dfkrug]

IN short EVs are doing more damage with their increased weight and paying zero road use tax through gasoline purchases. Seems to me an annual road access tax may be appropriate by weight. The same way you pay higher registration for a 1 ton truck vs a car now

We already have the weight fees for pickups, but not the mileage usage fees. All pickups in CA are designated "commercial" vehicles and pay an annual weight fee. (Unless you weld on a camper shell and plead your case at the DMV.)

And that's where SUVs and other heavy cars get away with murder. Originally SUVs were pickup trucks converted into passenger cars (no weight fees), but maintaining the lower exhaust emission standards of pickups.

So, coming to CA will be weight fees for all vehicles, and some kind of usage fee (mileage). I can't see the state or Feds giving up gas taxes, tho that would be fairer. We now pay over $1/gal in gas taxes.

Since I have 3 registered vehicles and just one driver, I pay more in registration fees than in fuel costs. That's hard to do.