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this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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Europe
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And their roads? What about their roads? Do their highways pay for themselves? Why is it that public transit must always be budget neutral or make a profit, but it's perfectly okay if, like in the US, the government pays $10 for every $1 a driver spends on driving?
Cars are heavily taxed in the Netherlands, afaik both when you buy them and then yearly.
I'd be very interested to see some numbers here. I share the sentiment of the OP: there's often talk about public transport being unprofitable but I haven't come across any conversation about how much it costs to maintain our road infrastructure and how much of it is covered by taxes.
Meanwhile, using a car to go between two cities in the Netherlands always works out cheaper than taking the train and the difference has gone up significantly in the last few years.
From my quick search, taxes come up to 4 billion.
Regular maintenance is 3 billion. Special projects for big repairs or new roads was 19 billion. But that also included some water infrastructure.
So it's also a big deficit?
Don't really have the numbers, sorry, I just know that it's a lot of money, especially if you have a nicer car.
In the context of infrastructure, I don't think comparing direct costs/income makes sense to talk about. It's existence brings insane economical benefit, doesn't matter if it's roads or public transport.
So my point is, it doesn't make sense to try to hate on roads because of costs/income, same as it doesn't make sense to do the same with public transport, both have their place in a much bigger system than themselves.
It's no hate on roads, it's hate on injustice expectations. Why should trains make profit and cars/roads are accepted as public subsidized method of transportation?
Plus it's a misconception that roads bring us 'insane economical benefit'. They cost us so so much (consider freedom, equality, environment, health and actual money) and the average citizen is certainly not the one to profit from this system.