Given that the damage to roads is linked to miles, and then the square of the vehicle's weight, it'd not be difficult for a state to stop putting the road maintenance related taxes on gas itself, and instead just measure those two things. Odometer change, times the square of the weight. Suddenly the really large truck that carries a single person is far more expensive to run than a sedan.
Something kind of like this is already done with stickers for electric cars in many states: Doing that for every car is just extending the program. It won't happen though, because a lot of people would be angry to internalize the cost of their choices
Re:Tesla Cybertruck Pricing and Specs
by alexanderchr on Friday December 01, 2023 @04:03AM
(#38484710)
It’s more than the square. I’m I remember right it’s to the 4th power of axle weight.
Yeah, I’d love that - or things like charging for parking by the square foot - but your last point is what I had in mind for the pessimistic ending: people REALLY don’t like losing subsidies, so I think a lot of governments are hoping buying preferences change or the insurance companies will do something because then they don’t take the political heat.
Weirdly the same thing has happened with smartphones. Every phone is a truck.
A small phone puts your safety at risk?
But you're right that there's far too little choice in smartphones. They're all fragile thin big touch screens. In the early days, you had smartphones made out of steel with sliding keyboards. What happened to that?
This is objectively true but it’s happening against three decades of marketing pushing SUVs hard and especially the messaging that if you drive a small car you’re putting your safety at risk. I think there’s an arm’s race here which is going to be hard to stop absent something causing gas prices to spike or a shift in insurance requirements.