In that case everyone in the burbs will just buy a Leaf, Bolt, Volt or Model S/X to bypass the cost of gasoline.

This is why municipalities are pressing higher order governments to move to comprehensive road pricing instead of gas taxes.

It's a good step forward, as long as the pricing scales with the amount of damage a car does to roads when driven. A heavy truck with skinny tires should pay much more than a 2 door convertible with fat tires. Base it on average recommended tire pressure, perhaps?

I'd actually like to see the tax on businesses relative to the distance their employees commute. As a bonus, without changing other rules, this also makes part time labor filling a full time job less cost effective.

Yep! that's how you do it. But the poor schmoe who has a magnetic sign and ladder on his old pickup will suffer for it, and we have integrated that into our politics. See also Jimmy Carter.

A big gas tax will hurt rural areas the most. Maybe we could base the tax on the population density of an area, and give electric car tech time to trickle down into less populated regions until we ultimately start turning up the heat there, too.

Last I heard it was more like 16/gal

Here's an actual study [1] from 2015, as opposed to hearsay, that suggests +$3.80/gal for gas and +$4.80/gal for diesel to represent the environmental damage. [1] http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-015-1343-0