The Cellar - View Single Post

glatt · 07-30-2010, 08:08 AM

OK. I'll research that.

According to the CIA Factbook, the US has 6,465,799 km of roads. 4,209,835 km are paved, and 2,255,964 km are unpaved. Of the paved roads, 75,040 km are expressways. Of the expressways, according to Wikepidia, 4700 km are toll roads.

So to summarize:
6,465,799 km of roads total
4,700 km are toll roads and are presumably self supporting

That works out to about 7 hundredths of one percent of the roads in the US are paid for directly by the people who use them. 99.93% of the roads are a "tax-supported entity" which is some sort of evil thing according to you.

Let's contrast that with the DC Metro system, the topic of this thread. Its 2010 operational budget is funded roughly 52% by passenger fares.

7 hundredths of one percent vs. 52 percent. Which one is the bigger tax supported entity?

Before you get the wrong idea, let me be clear that I think all roads should be free and should be tax supported entities. We all benefit from them. But I also think public transportation should be subsidized because we all benefit from it.

07-30-2010, 08:08 AM	#123
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	OK. I'll research that. According to the CIA Factbook, the US has 6,465,799 km of roads. 4,209,835 km are paved, and 2,255,964 km are unpaved. Of the paved roads, 75,040 km are expressways. Of the expressways, according to Wikepidia, 4700 km are toll roads. So to summarize: 6,465,799 km of roads total 4,700 km are toll roads and are presumably self supporting That works out to about 7 hundredths of one percent of the roads in the US are paid for directly by the people who use them. 99.93% of the roads are a "tax-supported entity" which is some sort of evil thing according to you. Let's contrast that with the DC Metro system, the topic of this thread. Its 2010 operational budget is funded roughly 52% by passenger fares. 7 hundredths of one percent vs. 52 percent. Which one is the bigger tax supported entity? Before you get the wrong idea, let me be clear that I think all roads should be free and should be tax supported entities. We all benefit from them. But I also think public transportation should be subsidized because we all benefit from it.