Featured Illinois Bill Proposes $1000/ Year EV Registration

OK ... I'm curious here ... How do "road bikes" squeeze the pavement more than passenger cars?

 

If you don’t pay your road tax the government will impose a severe penalty

 

they don't squeeze it more, but they do use it. so if we are going to penalize ev's, why not the same for bicycles and even pedestrians?

 

OK, some day when we all drive EV, then what happens? I can see the future with100% toll roads, with all vehicles on the public roads recorded and charged automatically by required GPS monitoring.

 

Doesn’t have to be recording in real time with location. In theory could check in mileage annually with registration in some official but less time consuming way than a smog check.

 

Yes, as discussed by others "mileage tax" is simpler. But I suspect by the time EV becomes a norm, the technology to charge ALL PUBLIC roads tolls in real time with GPS will be highly doable. Last month I was driving around Boston, I noticed that all of what use to be manned toll booth are now gone and replaced by transponder based drive thru. I was being charged on my credit card account each time I drove on those roads. This system could get extended to all off public roads. Not that I like or prefer that method in any way. It will raise the questions on invasion of privacy issue for sure.

 

Ground pressure. The contact patch is absolutely tiny, and it's still a cyclist + bike worth of weight, so the ground pressure is quite high compared to an automobile. It's not much to the road overall.

70lb figure skaters can tear up the surface of a rink pretty fast given that all their weight is suspended by the tiny contact patch of a skate blade.

Put them on snowshoes and you'd never need a zamboni.

 

The bicycle may have a ground pressure approaching that of a commercial truck, but total weight is major factor in road wear. A man on a bike, nor passenger car, isn't going to flex the road, including the underlying bed, like a truck does. And that is what causes road damage.

Road design uses equivalent single axle load values for approximating the wear the road will see.
ESAL 1 is equal to a single axle with dual wheels supporting 18,000 pounds. A car axle supporting 2000 pounds has an ESAL of 0.0002 to 0.0003. For a road designed for commercial truck traffic, cars, including SUVs, aren't causing damage.

Now they do wear the surface layer, which is why passenger car use should contribute to roadway funds, but charging heavier cars, whether SUV or BEV, more because they do more damage is BS.

 

I guess when that happens in 50 years we worry about it.

But today,
We already charge off road equipment “gas tax” and we already charge a general fund tax that goes to roads on home electricity use

Seems like we already charge the necessary taxes and can adjust them as needed

 

That's where disagreements are always debated. Everyone wants a piece.

 

States and localities around here have regulations against that. Then the issue is enforcement, and not road design.

Unless the local road is old, already is disrepair, or the contractor failed in their job, the difference in weight between cars of different classes and sizes isn't going to make a difference to the road.

 

Both the road bike and the tractor trailer work out to a small fraction of the pressure under a 100 lb person taking a step in stiletto heels.

 

stiletto tax

 

They have that in Nevada...or so I hear.

 

Which one? The stiletto heels or the tractor Trailers?

 

Like most taxes, the rate is arbitrary. But based on the cost of electric cars, the higher rate targets the wealthy.

 

You mean like AOC's tax plan?

 

Would ruin the fun.

 

Annual or mileage?