https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/how-will-states-pay-for-roads-when-gas-taxes-evaporate-bec312e0
As the number of electric vehicles grows and gasoline sales decline, governments are struggling to find new ways to fund infrastructure
There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.
Tires cause a lot of runoff pollution, so it could be good. Of course the auto industry would try to create something that isn't a tire for tax purposes and it'd end up being worse for the environment no doubt
Not just gas taxes.
How much revenue is generated from parking? Paying for parking, parking fines, traffic infractions?
What happens when that goes away?
At my peak, I was paying $21 a day to park my car downtown to go to work. I've been working from home for 5 years now.
Take electric cars out of the equation, when self drive cars become the standard, eliminating the need for parking, and preventing the need for traffic and parking infractions, where will the money come from?
I could see cities blocking off the downtown core with toll gates. You want to go in or out? Pay a fee. London already does this as a means of traffic control.
Also most toll money goes to the corporation that built the road and not to the state Highway funds.
This is the solution. The bite is that politicians know it is incredibly unpopular, and in America penalizes rural voters who have to drive farther. Ideally, it would be assessed annually when you renew registration and amortized out as monthly payment (or possibly an option to pay a lump sum). Based on your cars mileage for the last year, so it would be a post paid tax. However here in Texas, we just got rid of inspections that verify your mileage, so it would be left to self reporting, which is notoriously unreliable.
People already pay it in gas prices. Best plan would be to remove it from gas now and at the same time get the mileage tax set up. That way drivers who majority drive has vehicles will be happy their gas prices went down. That of course relies on gas companies not immediately raising profits and keeping the price the same.
In India we have road tax. Many years ago they realised people don't pay it every year and it was hard to track with the size of the population I suppose so they just charge you 10 years worth of road tax upfront when you buy a car and no other road tax payments after that.
Of course, our roads mostly suck although it's a bit better nowadays and most of the road construction money finds a home in many pockets along the way before finally reaching a road.