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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
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You Should Know
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Everyone uses roads, regardless of their personal existence on them. The entire economy is dependent on roads from the smallest momnpop shop to the largest global conglomerate. Shipping is its life's blood
Even if you don't drive, you still eat because of roads. No food delivery to supermarkets without roads. Same for all other goods and services.
I think what this is pushing back against is the idea that roads are built for motorists because motorists "pay" for the roads. Entitled people in cars getting pissed at pedestrians and cyclists because they "don't pay" for "their roads". As someone who rides their bike most places I've experienced this first hand as well as online discourse.
Those people are extra stupid
As it should be. Same as you pay for schools if you have no kids.
And? Public transit (that often also uses those roads) is not wholly funded by fairs collected but paid for by everyone if they use it or not as well(a normal thing). I just don't get why tax funding infrastructure is now seen as bad, is this some weird pcyop to have rich people pay less tax again?
Aother interesting thing about roads is that they're build to withstand the wear and tear from heavy vehicles.
This doesn't seem interesting, until you also find out that the wear from all other vehicles is completely and utterly negligible. Doesn't matter if you ride a bike, a motorcycle, car, electric car, pickup or SUV. None of the personal vehicles make a dent on the roads of any meaningful size, even if they make up a majority of the traffic.
Obviously we still need the roads for small vehicles, but the cost of constant maintenance all comes from cargo and busses.
If you see it this way, then almost all road construction is a hidden subsidy for the cargo industry who uses trucks instead rails or boats.
It would make a lot of economic sense for the society as a whole to demand fewer cargo trucks and more cargo rails.
Huge heavy SUVs and large trucks absolutely do cause wear and tear, and EVs are especially heavy. The surface layers of roads are damaged over time by vehicles if the foundation of the road mostly remains unimpacted.
The weight of a heavy electric Hummer is 4.5 metric tonnes.
The maximum allowed weight of a fully loaded cargo truck is 44 metric tonnes.
According to the fourth power law, this would make the impact of the truck more than 500 000 that of the Hummer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
Sure, the Hummer itself is already 16 times worse than a regular 1 ton car, but in the scale of things, the difference between any personal vehicle and a truck is about the same as whatever the truck is.
The fourth power law applies to weight per axle, assuming identical axles/tires. In reality, the typical tandem axle arrangement on big trucks (18 wheels across 5 axles, the four back axles paired together as tandems) spreads the load over a much larger road surface area than a typical 4-wheel passenger vehicle.
Also, the models themselves aren't that robust. It's from a single comprehensive study of loaded trucks, from 1958-1960, that has been very influential, but the tests itself never went down to passenger car weight.
Civil engineers have models and formulas for that, and there is indeed much more road deformation from the heavy trucks, but it's probably closer to thousands of times the load for an 18-wheel tractor trailer than for a passenger vehicle, not 500,000. Note in that analysis, it talks about which power to use (not always 4) for different types of road wear or damage, and many of them are less sensitive or more sensitive to vehicle load.
It's all interesting stuff, but I worry that people on the internet have put way too much value on the fourth power law here, stretching it beyond the original scope or overstating its applicability to practical road design issues.
While big cars do more damage than small cars or a bike. It's seriously negligable compared to any sort of goods transport vehicle
I don't think most of the wear and tear on roads actually comes from the weight of vehicles driving on it, though.
In most places where I've lived, the cracks and potholes are caused by the shifting of the ground underneath, freeze/thaw cycles of water/precipitation, and things like that. Most roads would still require maintenance to keep them driveable, even without vehicles driving over them.
It becomes obvious with dedicated bike trails or protected bike lanes, where motor vehicles simply do not have access to those stretches of pavement, where potholes can still form over time.
Well okay, because it’s also a myth that only people who drive get value from roads.
Food does get trucked in somehow!
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This is a big deal that we should pay more attention to. It’s holding back adoption of transit, bike lanes, and EVs
Too many people believe their gas taxes pay for road maintenance. That it’s targeted toward roads and that it covers roads. Too often they react in outrage at concepts like
- EVs aren’t paying their fair share
- it’s not supposed to pay for transit
- let bicyclists pay for their own roads
The reality is that gas taxes are not usually targeted, it’s already not fair with the variety of weight and efficiency of vehicles, and in the US it typically covers more like half of road maintenance so it’s still highly dependent on other funding sources
Maybe it’s time to rethink this tax, to something without the emotional baggage, that’s fair for everyone, and that adequately funds all transportation needs
It might be news to some but your mail, groceries, healthcare, emergency services, construction vehicles, tradesmen and myriad other essential services require roads regardless of whether you personally drive on them.
Plus, the implication that your taxes should only pay for services that you personally use, or even for services that you might use, is just plain uncivilized.
Some people have that situation, for example, where they can choose whether to pay for fire services, and if they don't and their house catches fire, the fire department won't do anything except protect neighboring houses that have paid for it.
It's pretty backwards for modern sensibilities.
Some taxes are fairly generic, like income tax or property tax. However some are specifically targeted, intentionally or not.
Too many people believe their gas taxes pay for road maintenance (on average in US less than half) so react in outrage when someone proposes other transportation needs, such as rail or bike lanes, or react in outrage at the idea of EVs not paying their fair share.
We should
- replace the gasoline tax with a carbon tax on gasoline, so it pays for the environmental damage
- Pay for transportation maintenance in a more inclusive way, perhaps cars can pay annually based on weight and mileage. Or for simplicity and privacy perhaps a fixed fee on annual registration. This would be fair for EV vs ice cars, and non-car owners don’t pay
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This very much depends on the country.
Maybe properly taxes go in part to fund local roads (mine do) and maybe some people paying these don't have a car. But even people who don't have cars do have garbage trucks that pick up their trash, mail delivery vans delivering their mail and packages, emergency vehicles that might need to come to the residence, delivery trucks that bring the food to the local supermart, and public transport buses that need to access parts of the community.
People indirectly use roads even if they don't have a car.
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YSK that this varies significantly from country to country and jurisdiction to jurisdiction, so stating this without identifying the specific area to which it pertains is misleading.
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As bad as the roads out here are, it always irks me that they charge a road & bridge fee on my taxes but my roads still suck
I never heard it was drivers who pay for the roads. I’ve always heard it’s taxes.
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Similarly, everyone benefits from roads, even if they don't drive, even if they are a house hermit. What you thought you amazon package was just teleporting? Your life saving medicine? Your food?
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