[The Pack Knight]

"It is increasingly appropriate to charge drivers for some roadway use in the same way the private market charges for other goods and services,"

That's just it. The roadways are NOT a private market. They are taxpayer-funded public rights of way. If the government wants to do it this way, they should sell the roads to private companies and let them charge whatever tolls they want. I'm for free market solutions to our problems, but half@$$ed pseudo-free market solutions are problematic at best, because free markets don't work so well absent the profit motive. That said, using gas taxes to fund highways isn't exactly "fair" either. My Cherokee doesn't "use" the road any more than a Prius does, but I pay twice the gas tax per mile. The truth is that while our road system is in many ways the finest in the world, it's still a government program, and is just as much a mess as any other.

[Alberta's Child]

The roadways are NOT a private market.

You're right. But that doesn't mean they are immune to the same economic forces at work in a private market.

Simply put, this means that an asset whose use is free -- or is perceived to be "free" by the users -- will always tend to be used to excess. That, in a nutshell, is what highway congestion is all about.

[steve-b]

My Cherokee doesn't "use" the road any more than a Prius does

Heavy objects produce more wear and tear on the underlying surface than light objects. That's Physics 101.