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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • The problem is distance driven has a linear effect. The weight has an exponential effect. If you drive a monster truck 10 miles a year and you drive a shitty commuter that weighs 1/5 the amount 3,650 miles a year, the monster truck is gonna damage the road more. If the fee is anything but a 4 power exponent from weight and linear with distance then you’re punishing miles driven more than they are contributing to road wear.

    In fact the only time distance matters is if its 0 then why even bother licensing a vehicle heavy enough to be worth surcharging? If most people drive their vehicles more than 10 miles a year but less than 10000, you’d want the fees to scale with normal use cases rather than some fringe use cases that encourage people to own vehicles they never use.

    Edit: The way to do it is probably surcharge people for the weight of the vehicle + the weight of the gas the vehicles use in a year.


  • The fourth power law indicates that a heavier vehicle that is 5x heavier per axle does more damage to the road in one day than one day than a lighter vehicle (1x) would do in a year travelling the same route every day.

    So no, its not disproportionate or unfair to fee vehicles by weight. Japanese kei trucks aren’t even very big so there’s market solutions that exists. Plus there’s an argument to be made that if you’re only using a truck once a year its more effecient to rent it than buy it.

    As for simplicity, you’re right no plan is going to easily be both fair and simple. Where I live there’s weigh stations along the highway that weigh big trucks and these capture out of state trucks. I’m sure a registration fee can be collected there, too for out of state vehicles, even at a day rate. You can also offer parking fee discounts for registered vehicles.

    If you boil down to “why do we care about this” generally the answers ARE easier to come up with.