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IntelligentCicada363 t1_j8jbgqy wrote

Reply to comment by PabloX68 in Why is the Masspike the only toll road in Mass? by bostexa

Adding tolls to pay for maintenance would have benefits. Perhaps the biggest for highways would be that it would remove a lot of power the federal government has over the states.

The drinking age being 21 in every state is not even a "law" in the traditional sense. The federal government instead simply says that if it isn't 21, they will take away all of a state's highway funding. They do this for many things.

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I also think that private passenger vehicles should pay the real cost to use the incredibly expensive and destructive infrastructure that highways are.

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PabloX68 t1_j8jwmec wrote

Why shouldn't commercial trucks pay? The damage to the roads goes up exponentially with the weight each tire puts on that surface. Trucks do vastly more damage to road surfaces than passenger cars.

Weather also does a lot of damage, obviously. That can be mitigated to a substantial degree by building roads to a better standard. They do this in places like Japan and colder countries in Europe. They also do it in NH and the result is the road costs more up front, but long term maintenance costs (fixing potholes) are lower.

There's also NFW states won't chase those road dollars.

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