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A comment on Virginia maps out optional per-mile road fee program for 2022 launch. Parent comment

Re:Virginia maps out optional per-mile road fee program for ... by snakeboy on Wednesday September 08, 2021 @07:58AM (#28455794)
Wouldn't this be a good economic incentive to buy more locally? Since it sounds like currently shipping costs via trucking are ignoring this externality.
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Re:Virginia maps out optional per-mile road fee program for ... by refurb on Wednesday September 08, 2021 @08:25AM (#28456044)
Externality? Who do you think is bringing you food and all the items you buy? Even locally?

The Grenadier Guard?

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Re:Virginia maps out optional per-mile road fee program for ... by rocqua on Wednesday September 08, 2021 @08:34AM (#28456120)
Currently the complete cost of shipping food includes road damage that is not priced into shipping but instead borne by all citizens. By making those responsible for road damage, pay for it, they have an economic incentive to stop the damage.
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Re:Virginia maps out optional per-mile road fee program for ... by refurb on Wednesday September 08, 2021 @11:18AM (#28458367)
Not priced into shipping, but equally borne by all tax payers. If all tax payers benefit through transportation of food and other essentials, that’s not really an externality? The people paying are the ones who benefit?
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Re:Virginia maps out optional per-mile road fee program for ... by rocqua on Thursday September 09, 2021 @04:54PM (#28474535)
It's an externality because the people who are paying aren't the people who are causing the damage.

This isn't so much unfair, but it does remove incentives for the shippers to cause less damage to the roads.

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Re:Virginia maps out optional per-mile road fee program for ... by dtech on Wednesday September 08, 2021 @08:32AM (#28456104)
A truck damaging the road dis-proportionally is an economic externality [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality

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