this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (21 children)

I followed the link, then the link to the California Road charge web site. What I was looking for and didn't find in any place is: "How will the mileage be monitored and how will the fee be collected?" I think those are important questions before one could decide if this is a good plan.

I personally like the idea of taxing tires instead. Since the wear and tear on roads is in direct causation to weight, the faster a tire wears out (because of weight) the more damage to roads would be caused. This means that lighter cars, causing less damage, would replace their tires less frequently, meaning paying less tax.

However, large heavy trucks that do the most damage also would have to replace their tires more often and thereby shoulder more of the burden of road repair, which is appropriate because heavy vehicles are doing much more of the damage.

[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Tire wear is not as standard as you are implying. There are many factors in tire wear including the hardness of the rubber compound. Stickier tires for better steering and braking wear faster than, say, high mileage tires for hybrids to get the best MPG or electric range.

The tires on my hybrid are designed for more miles that my Honda that weighs half a ton less.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Tire wear is not as standard as you are implying. There are many factors in tire wear including the hardness of the rubber compound. Stickier tires for better steering and braking wear faster than, say, high mileage tires for hybrids to get the best MPG or electric range.

If you're looking for a perfect metric for road wear that works across all vehicles, you're not going to find it. A perfect example of this is today's gas tax. The size of the vehicle, the engine, the amount of cargo being carried, even the wind direction that day all influence the fuel efficiency of the vehicle and would raise and lower the amount of fuel it would consume, yet the static per gallon tax is levied on each gallon regardless of the day or car. So even today's gas tax doesn't capture perfectly the usage.

I'd argue a tire tax gets much closer. You left out one piece of info on your tire comparrison. Those tires are rated for different amounts of miles of use, so that could be added as a metric to get a more accurate taxation:

[–] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Not looking for perfect, but I'm not finding consistency with this math. I've had tire non-alighment related issues this year including a blowout and crunching scenarios doesn't come up with a tax applicable to road wear.

I ran rumbers on a few cars I have access to ranging from 2100 lbs to 7100 lbs. You can use estimated miles and load rating, but your tax would be worst case scenarios. I also put larger tires on a very light car because the amount it floated on the freeway stock was disconcerting.

Point is, if everyone had to use OEM, it would be a bit more accurate. But the variety in material, application, and availability adds a lot of variable as to make this moot.

My second lightest and second heaviest car in all my family use the same tire.

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