Trucks are responsible for 99% of road damage and only pay 38% of the costs.

https://truecostblog.com/2009/06/02/the-hidden-trucking-indu...

Yes, the costs should be apportioned to those who are making them. If the bus causes the most road damage, then it should be charged. Then it'll make financial sense to invest in rail. Financial incentives are how capitalism works and the purpose of governments under capitalism is to apply externalities to the source causing them.

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rfrey 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Should cyclists be charged a special tax for bike lane construction and maintenance? What about sidewalks, should you need a pedestrian pass?

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coryrc 2 hours ago | parent [-]

1. As soon as the roads are all paying best-possible-use property tax for the space they take up and it's completely paid by automobiles, in addition to all maintenance, we should try to proportionally assign dedicated bicycle infrastructure costs toward bicycle users, now and anticipated.

2. Everyone is a pedestrian.

	▲	rfrey an hour ago \| parent [-]
		People accuse communists of being unrealistic idealists, but they have nothing on the libertarians.

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ndsipa_pomu 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It'd be interesting to try charging vehicles relative to the road damage they do as it's proportional to around the fourth power of weight. It would likely change the nature of logistics as it could mean that large trucks would be more expensive that using two or three smaller trucks. Similarly, buses would benefit from being smaller and lighter.

	▲	direwolf20 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Trucks already have lots of axles and wheels for this reason, because it's weight per wheel that matters.