Electric Vehicles? Towing? Hauling?

time2roll wrote:
The point is we all collectively pay for the roads. No method is perfect.
My thought is... roads should be paid with general income tax or sales tax or both.
Petrol tax can be used for roads or reducing pollution or pollution clean up.

to your point, only about 50% of people pay federal income tax and the rate for paying state income tax while unknown to me is likely not much different. but everyone buys stuff. and low income folks that don't pay fed income tax and likely no state income tax still drive (we personally know several that fit that category) and buy gas. as you say, no system is perfect but as fair as possible to as many people as possible, not perfection, should not be the goal. someone(s) will always be outliers to whatever system is in place.

I 'spose you could assess a annual fee to every registered motor vehicle in a state regardless of the owner's income level or maybe a sliding scale based on the owner's income level or as has been stated some sort of formula based on miles driven in the previous year, weight of the vehicle, etc. could be constructed but then you run into issues of having to prove out of state mileage, paying a percentage of tax to that state or states, etc. gets very complicated very fast. but either way that would have to be a pretty hefty fee to replace the road tax at the pump. and it would have to include every registered vehicle/owner regardless of income level unlike the federal/state income taxes.