Why isn't there a congestion tax? (Houston, Dallas: 2013, attorney, property taxes)

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by veloman777

I already pay the same money as you do in car taxes, fees, plates, insurance. I just don't drive more than about 500 miles a year. Why should I be double taxed if I use my bike 95% of the time?

Registration and license plate fees mainly go towards just keeping that system going, not for maintaining the roads. State and local property and sales taxes are where road money comes from.

Well, first, not all cyclists have cars. It's really not just all about you.

But what I'm really more interested in, and see just as much if not more squealing about, is the idea that adult bicyclists who are using the public roadways or transportation should be required to be licensed and to pass a test on the rules of the road just like the operators of automobiles and motorcyclists are. That just throws some people into a tizzy, it seems. There's been, for example, the excuse (not reason) given that "I already have a driver's license and so I know that I know the rules of the road", ignoring the fact that people who have cars and motorcycles have to be licensed for both in order to use the public roadways and that, again, not everyone who rides a bicycle on the public roads has a car or motorcycle, as well.

You'd think that bicyclists would want to know that everyone on the road with them has passed at least a minimal test to show that they are qualified to share the road with a variety of kinds of vehicles and has at least a passing acquaintance with the laws pertaining to such, but apparently some of them only want automobile drivers to show that and we're just supposed to assume that bicyclists know all about it.

[gpurcell]

I don't care about licensing; I would, however, like to see APD start ticketing bicyclists who run red lights and stop signs.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by veloman777

Registration and license plate fees mainly go towards just keeping that system going, not for maintaining the roads. State and local property and sales taxes are where road money comes from.

You might check your facts before you opine. Registration fees pay about 15% of the road maintenance bill - $2.1B. Fuel taxes pay about 1/3 - $4.5B. About 1/2 comes from the federal fuel tax. No state sales tax revenues are spent on roads.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by scm53

No state sales tax revenues are spent on roads.

So I just imagined all those city transportation bonds that keep passing, to construct and maintain roads?

Or the diversions from the federal general revenue fund to the transportation fund.

Highway Trust Fund - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Novacek

So I just imagined all those city transportation bonds that keep passing, to construct and maintain roads?[/url]

Answered your own question. City money is different from state money. The State Highway Fund, as I said earlier, doesn't get state general fund revenue. It does, veloman's statements to the contrary, get money - about $2.1B - from registration fees.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by scm53

Answered your own question. City money is different from state money. The State Highway Fund, as I said earlier, doesn't get state general fund revenue. It does, veloman's statements to the contrary, get money - about $2.1B - from registration fees.

What's that have to do with the price of tea in China? The subject was whether cyclists (which by and large use local roads, not highways) are paying for the roads they use.

The answer is Yes. (even if the cyclist doesn't own/use a car).

[Willsson]

Why isn't there a congestion tax?

Some party boys in Boston got together for tea, made a ruckus, and changed the rules.

It wasn't until the later part of the 20th centuries though that auto's had air conditioning but did have leaded gas. That would have been the time to consider a congestion tax. Or, that might have been the cost of a doctor's visit.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Willsson

Why isn't there a congestion tax?

Some party boys in Boston got together for tea, made a ruckus, and changed the rules.

It wasn't until the later part of the 20th centuries though that auto's had air conditioning but did have leaded gas. That would have been the time to consider a congestion tax. Or, that might have been the cost of a doctor's visit.

\

Best answer!

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Novacek

What's that have to do with the price of tea in China? The subject was whether cyclists (which by and large use local roads, not highways) are paying for the roads they use.

The answer is Yes. (even if the cyclist doesn't own/use a car).

What a complete non-sequitur. Here is the original statement:

Registration and license plate fees mainly go towards just keeping that system going, not for maintaining the roads. State and local property and sales taxes are where road money comes from.

Nothing in there about cyclists - only the complete falsehood that license plates are not a source of money for maintaining the roads. False. That state sales taxes "are where the road money comes from. False. You are trying to create an argument that doesn't exist. For some REALLY inexplicable reason.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by scm53

What a complete non-sequitur. Here is the original statement:



Nothing in there about cyclists - only the complete falsehood that license plates are not a source of money for maintaining the roads. False. That state sales taxes "are where the road money comes from. False. You are trying to create an argument that doesn't exist. For some REALLY inexplicable reason.

No, the original statement was "How about let's charge bicycles registration fees and make them don a license plate for use of the road I am paying for."