Funding of roads

Often when I get into discussion with car drivers, the conversation often turns to money with an assertion that since drivers pay for roads, they are entitled to them. This is then invariably followed with the assertion that since cyclists don't pay for roads or infrastructure, they shouldn't get safe spaces.

This is a false statement, drivers in do not pay their share of the cost of the road network either in capital or operating costs. You can probably find numerous studies around the world that show this to be the case, however they tend not to focus on British Columbia and don't get into the details of how it works in British Columbia.

In the following series of articles I'll try to dive into a few things:

• The Translink gas levy (relevant only for people in the lower mainland)
• The Federal Gas Tax Fund
• Municipal funding of road infrastructure
• Provincial and Federal Government funding of road infrastructure
• The costs of ongoing maintenance
• The costs of capital projects

And anything else you think might be relevant. I'd like to point out I'm not an accountant, or expert on government funding, just someone trying to understand how all this funding works. I'd 💚 any contributions, corrections or help anyone can provide. This blog is completely open source and contributors are more than welcome.

Any discussion of costs of cars can't be done without talking the externalities that come from car drivers. Externalities are costs that society pays, but the actual car driver does not. Some of the examples these are:

• Car drivers kill 288 people and injure 48,851 people a year (numbers for 2023).
• Cars contribute to COPD, asthma and other lung conditions.
• It's bad for your health, something society has to pay health care costs for 👉 "longer driving time was associated with higher odds for smoking, insufficient physical activity, short sleep, obesity, and worse physical and mental health" Source
• Tyres shed millions of tons of microplastics into the environment and are killing our salmon.
• 22% of Canada's fossil fuels emissions is from transportation. Climate change, you might have heard of it.

The list of externalities is long, but these are all costs that society bears - not the driver. We'll avoid talking about these in this series of articles.

In the meantime, here's the Mayor of Quebec City answering a question about if cyclists should pay taxes to cycle in the city.