SB 16 in California: $100 annual fee for ZEVs

[apacheguy]

Do they pay fees proportional to the damage they do? I have a feeling that isn't the case, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, even down here in LA almost all the road damage is in the right two lanes where all the trucks drive. In my experience finding a pothole in the left lanes is extremely rare. The high road use fee paid by truckers is absolutely justified. I only question if it should be higher because clearly it isn't enough to even keep up the maintainece of their lanes. The amount of damage done by a Leaf or a Tesla is so minuscule.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I'm happy to pay for driving on our roads, but in California we pay the highest percentage of gas tax for road repair that ends up in the black hole. We are voting on this exact subject in Sonoma County for road repair and all the politicians say the monies collected will only go to road repair. There is so much corruption and waste in government that we really do not know where the money ends up. So create a fund that can only be used for road repair (not a transportation fund) and then fix the roads.

The proposed Sonoma County increase is just a general sales tax increase. So it'll be going directly to the General Fund, not even a specific transportation fund, much less one dedicated to road repair.

 

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Yeah, even down here in LA almost all the road damage is in the right two lanes where all the trucks drive. In my experience finding a pothole in the left lanes is extremely rare. The high road use fee paid by truckers is absolutely justified. I only question if it should be higher because clearly it isn't enough to even keep up the maintainece of their lanes. The amount of damage done by a Leaf or a Tesla is so minuscule.

I've been digging around, and there's a huge difference in wear between tractor trailers and cars. One 80k lb Semi causes the same amount of wear as ~10k autos, and with basic maintenance at ~$20k/year and rebuilding a road at ~10x that (~$2 million/mile, assuming it's rebuilt every decade), that means the vast majority of physical damage to roads is caused by heavy duty vehicles.

http://www.sacog.org/mtp/pdf/MTP2035/Issue Papers/Road Maintenance.pdf

But.. Trucks only pay ~$2.5 billion (Assuming ~25 billion miles/year on CA roads) of the ~$27 billion total cost via weight fees and fuel (state/federal/sales) taxes.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/eab/fundchrt_files/Transportation_Funding_in_CA_2014.pdf

And... Road rehab is ~60% of road expenditures.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/Pavement/Pavement_Program/PDF/2013_SOP_FINAL-Dec_2013-1-24-13.pdf

So... Heavy duty vehicles are responsible for the majority of costs associated with roads in CA, but only pay ~10% of those costs. The elephant in the room isn't EVs not paying their fair share for roads, it's heavy duty vehicles not paying for their fair share.

 

[Merrill]

And again I do not believe that the money collected from the trucking industry all goes to road repair.

 

[Stoneymonster]

So... Heavy duty vehicles are responsible for the majority of costs associated with roads in CA, but only pay ~10% of those costs. The elephant in the room isn't EVs not paying their fair share for roads, it's heavy duty vehicles not paying for their fair share.

Quelle surprise.

 

[ke6jph]

Do not forget about NAFTA....trucks from below the border that can carry enough fuel can avoid paying any fuel tax, as well as out of state trucks. I had this competition when I had my trucking company. Local trucking companies do pay their fair share..........It is amazing how nice the highways are in Arizona.........

 

[omgwtfbyobbq]

I really doubt any truckers pay their fair share given the damage from HDVs relative to the damage from LDVs and the amount of the caltrans budget allocated to repairs. However, it's true that out of state truckers can skip out on the fuel tax if they have enough in their tanks and are getting a bigger break than in state operators.

I think we should base the fuel tax on the cost of maintenance+new construction, and base HDV weight fees on the costs of repairing existing roads. That way, both in state and out of state trucking/bus/etc companies will pay their fair share for the damage they cause because they operate much heavier vehicles, and everyone will pay their air share based on use for maintenance/new construction.

 

[apacheguy]

FWIW, Jerry's newly released plan does not target EVs with this absurd $100 fee. I'm all in favor

updated with link: New road-repair plan from Gov. Jerry Brown includes higher gas taxes, vehicle fees - LA Times