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Dec 6th, 2017
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257 |
The road maintenance expenses won't go down much at all with fewer auto miles. It depends much more on truck miles. If more people stay home and have stuff delivered by truck, rather than driving a car to pick it up, then the road costs would actually rise!
If we want to cut our road maintenance costs considerably, we will need to explore incentives for companies to use freight trains instead of trucks to move their products and materials for long distances. I have read that a freight train can move 18 times more freight per dollar of fuel compared to a diesel truck. It even makes economic sense to put full truck trailers on flat bed cars to ship them across country, rather than having individual drivers take them the whole way.
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 15,646
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 15,646 |
Not at all, PIA? Are you saying that autos contribute absolutely nothing to the need for road maintenance? Does that not imply that auto drivers are actually subsidizing highway use by large trucks?
Truckers pay a highway use fee based on the weight of the truck and they use a great deal more fuel than cars. So if truck traffic does not decrease, how much will highway tax revenues decrease after all?
If people stay at home and have stuff delivered by truck, then highway revenues would go up correspondingly to the increase in truck miles and in the number of trucks paying the annual highway use fee based on weight.
I agree with your argument about trains, but of course then we have to find gainful employment not only for all those former highway maintenance workers, but for the former truck drivers as well.
Steve Give us the wisdom to teach our children to love,
to respect and be kind to one another,
so that we may grow with peace in mind.
(Native American prayer)
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21,134
Administrator Bionic Scribe
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21,134 |
Because money available for repairs has fallen far short of the need, Caltrans has been making temporary fixes, such as asphalt patches, instead of using longer-wearing concrete that lasts 40 years. Over the long run, officials say, temporary fixes can end up costing taxpayers twice as much as a permanent repair.
“We would like to do new concrete instead of constant asphalt overlays, which have to be redone every five or 10 years. It’s like a big Band-Aid, but that is all we can afford,” said Kirsten Stahl, a civil engineer in the Los Angeles Caltrans district who works on highway rehabilitation projects. State officials say deterioration accelerates if a road is not repaired quickly.
Stahl spoke during a tour of damaged pavement on the 710 Freeway, one of the most-repaired state routes in Los Angeles County, and a highway that takes heavy pounding from tens of thousands of daily truck trips. A $400-million project to improve the median barriers, shoulders and ramps of the 710 is underway. But that is only a start on the highway’s problems.
Life is a banquet -- and most poor suckers are starving to death -- Auntie Mame
You are born naked and everything else is drag - RuPaul
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